Minister confirms Chicken Guinea, 11,000 afflicted

Chennai, Jun 14 (UNI) About 11,000 people in 229 villages were hit by Chicken Guinea fever in Tamil Nadu, but there was no cause for any alarm, state Health Minister K K S S R Ramachandran said today.

Talking to newspersons here, the Minister said the disease, caused by mosquitoes, had spread to 17 districts, four municipalities and Salem corporation, but there was no single case of death because of the disease so far.

The state government had taken adquate steps to contain the disease, which had no preventive vaccine. The fever last for about five days and the symptoms are body and joint aches, he said.

Blood samples collected from 229 affected people were sent to the National Virus Laboratory in Pune and the results tested positive for Chicken Guinea fever in case of 27 people, he said.

This confirmed the spread of the disease in the state, he said adding mosquitoes bred in stagnant water were the carriers of disease. The disease had nothing do with chicken or Bird Flu, he clarified.

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