All necessary measures taken to control Chikungunya

Coimbatore, Oct 7: Tamil Nadu State Public Health Secretary V K Subburaj said the department had taken all necessary measures to control diseases like Chikungunya and Dengue in the state.

Talking to newspersons here, after a review meeting with health officials from 12 districts, he said so far 62,698 suspected Chikungunya cases were reported from the state.

Out of the 641 blood samples sent to Institute of Virology, Pune, only 111 were confirmed for Chikungunya.

He said Namakkal District was the most affected in the district.

The health department workers were actively preventing further out break of both Chikungunya and Dengue by taking up fogging and larvicidal measures.

About 500 doctors were appointed so far and attempts were on to fill the vacancies in all primary health centres.

Mr Subburaj said the government had allocated Rs 16.2 crore to control the diseases and all Medical Colleges were provided with a diagnostic kit, worth Rs 20,000, to detect Dengue fever in patients.

Currently, the government has no plans to provide any financial assistance to persons affected with Chikungunya.

The government had requested the Centre to open a laboratory at par with Institute of Virology, Pune, in Chennai, he added.

UNI