Chikungunya outbreak will cease soon: Health Expert

Chennai, Sep 28 (UNI) The outbreak of Chikungunya, a febrile mosquito transmitted disease, is causing serious concern among the people of Tamil Nadu.

But the health authorities have been allaying fears about the outbreak of the pandemic since the last three months, contrary to the charge being made by the opposition parties that already more than 2000 people had succumbed to the disease.

''It is very much under control'' , say private doctors as well as the health officer in the Chennai Corporation. The disease would be brought under control completely by this month end, they aver.

Health care workers, with the help of about three lakh children from government and private schools, have been engaged in the battle to destroy the larvae of the mosquito acting as the vector in spreading the virus.

The school children, acting as ''health ambassadors'', would visit the areas and houses where mosquitoes breed prodigiously. They would be explaining the preventive measures to the people there.

The Corporation health workers are also carrying out exercises like fumigation and fogging in areas where there is large scale stagnation of water.

Although the outbreak of the debilitating viral disease which hits a patient with high fever, joint pain and severe headache, is commonly believed to have come from the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, where it surfaced recently, it had also struck here about 40 years ago, says another Dr Padmanabhan. ''Only the sudden outbreak is causing the panic and it is hardly fatal,'' he says. ''But the treatment methods being followed in the government health sector is adequate to stem the outbreak'', he adds.

''But there are no antibiotics to treat the disease. Only painkillers are administered with tablets to control the itching sensation,'' he says, adding good rest and intake of lots of fluids and five days of rest after the fever comes down would suffice.

However, Dr Padmanabhan warns that superstitious cures like giving a patient dry fish or donkey's milk should not be encouraged.

''We have to strongly discourage such superstitions and the media must play a role in this'', he points out.

The disease has hit six to seven districts in Tamil Nadu, with the a large number of cases reported in Namakkal.

Explaining the severity of the fever in some cases, a private practioner Dr M Sudhakar, points out ''probably in some patients, the virulence of the organism is high.'' ''The disease is not usually fatal per se'', he says adding, ''but it could hit anybody with low immunity, which is why so many have been afflicted.'' UNI