Chickungunya, rat fever under control in Raichur district

[CAkidd]

Karnataka - Gulbarga

Ashok concerned over outbreak of epidemics

Special Correspondent

Chickungunya, rat fever under control in Raichur district

Minister holds high-level meeting
Rs. 25 lakhs released for Gulbarga district
Over 50,000 people affected by the epidemics in four districts
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GULBARGA: Health and Family Welfare Minister R. Ashok on Sunday said the outbreak of leptospirosis (rat fever) and chikungunya has been brought under control in Raichur district. But he expressed concern over the situation in Gulbarga, Bidar and Tumkur districts where there are reports of outbreak of dengue fever.

Mr. Ashok told presspersons here before leaving for Bidar that he had toured the affected villages in Tumkur and Raichur districts and held discussions with his department officials, deputy commissioners and chief executive officers of the two zilla panchayats to bring about coordination to take remedial steps.

He said lack of coordination among various departments was the reason for the spread of the disease in the affected district. He said deputy commissioners have been instructed to ensure proper coordination among various departments and help his department.

Coordination


Mr. Ashok said there is a feeling among the officials of other departments that it is the duty of only the Health and Family Welfare Department to tackle the epidemic. The other departments should take up cleaning operations in all the affected areas and ensure regular cleaning of the ground level and overhead tanks used for storing the drinking water and take up repairs to plug all leaks in the drinking water pipelines to prevent the mixing of sewage water in the drinking water.

To tackle leptospirosis (rat fever), the drinking water and unclean environment were the main reasons and the spread of the dengue and chikungunya was because of mosquito menace. The Minister said the municipalities, gram panchayats and city municipal corporations should ensure that there is no water-logging in the affected areas to prevent the breeding of mosquitoes.

Mr. Ashok said to ensure proper coordination among different departments, two committees under the chairmanship of the deputy commissioner at the district level and another committee headed by the tahsildar has been constituted in the affected districts.

The committee headed by the tahsildar will meet every day to take stock of the developments and report to the deputy commissioner about the situation. The committee headed by the Deputy Commissioner will meet once in two days to review the situation and report to the State Government. The State Government has released Rs. 25 lakh to Gulbarga district and Rs. 5 lakh to Raichur to tackle the disease. This is in addition to Rs. 45 lakhs released in January to Gulbarga district and Rs. 60 lakh provided to Raichur during the same period, Mr. Ashok said.

To a question, the Minister said according to the latest figures available with the Government, over 50,000 people were afflicted with leptospirosis and chikungunya and dengue fever in Gulbarga, Raichur, Bidar and Tumkur districts.

http://www.hindu.com/2006/04/03/stor...0302020300.htm

[eladdie]

Re: Chickungunya, rat fever under control in Raichur district

Government releases Rs 14 lakh to tackle viral diseases
Sunday April 2 2006 13:29 IST

RAICHUR: Minister for Health R. Ashok said here on Saturday that the State government had released Rs 14 lakhs to each district to tackle viral diseases like rat fever, dengue and ckungunya which broke out in five districts of the state border.

He said that required medicines had been provided in the district. ?Twenty-five fogging machines were given and ten more would be given if needed. Ten vehicles were also provided,? he said.

When the reporters pointed about the vacant posts of nurses in the district, he said that the present norms for their recruitment was that they should undergo the training at the government nursing schools.

Now the norms would be relaxed and required amendments would be made soon to pave the way for recruitment, he said.

A district-level committee to monitor the relief operations has been formed under the chairmanship of the Deputy Commissioner.

The sub-divisional level committees headed by the Assistant Commissioners and tahsildars as members also have been formed. These committees would be meeting once in two days to review the relief operations, he said.

The minister said that he had released Rs.5 lakhs on Saturday to the district health officer to purchase required medicines and other materials to combat the viral diseases. He clarified that no person in the State had died of rat fever or chickungunya.

In Raichur district 9863 people have been ailing from viral fever and the blood samples have been sent to the National Institute of Virology at Pune for examination. It takes at least two months to get the results of the samples, he said.

He was accompanied by District Incharge Minister Hanmanthappa Alkod, MLAs Muniyappa Muddappa and A Papareddy and Deputy Commissioner Tushar Girinath.

[DB]

Re: Chickungunya, rat fever under control in Raichur district

Looks like Chikungunya is getting out of control.

It will cover all of India in a couple of more months at this rate.