VIRAL FEVER IN SINDHUVALLI: 2000 TAKE ILL

[Gert van der Hoek]

VIRAL FEVER IN SINDHUVALLI: 2000 TAKE ILL


Nanjangud, June 14 (BRS)- Following reports of outbreak of a mysterious fever in Sindhuvalli village, Dr. Nagarathna, Health Officer, Primary Health Centre, Kadakola, visited the village on Tuesday and conducted a general health check-up of the residents.

She opined that the large number of residents in Sindhuvalli village could have suffered from fever due to virus.

Blood samples of 50 residents of the village had been taken and sent for testing. Persistent fever and its spread from one to another are signs of virus infection. It is neither Chikungunya nor Malaria, the official disclosed to the media.

More than 2,000 residents of the village are affected by the fever, with about three or four in each family suffering from the mysterious fever. The situation is persisting for about a month now. The number of afflicted persons is constantly on the rise. Many are completely bedridden.

As the fever is spreading widely, the scared residents are sending their children away from the village to relatives in other places, rendering the schools in the village empty.

Although the suffering persons were treated by local doctors for the past 15 days there was no relief.

A mobile medical check-up van from TVS Motor Company and another from Ganapati Sachchidananda Ashram are the only help available to the villagers.

As these vans stop at pre-specified spots, it has not been possible to treat the bedridden patients. The entire village is stunned and an eerie silence has engulfed the place.

Villagers mob GP office

The residents of Sindhuvalli village mobbed the Gram Panchayat Office this morning alleging that the funds released by TVS Motor Company, which has adopted the village, has not been released for maintaining sanitation.

http://www.starofmysore.com/main.asp?type=news&item=13358

[Snowy Owl]

Re: VIRAL FEVER IN SINDHUVALLI: 2000 TAKE ILL

Chikungunya may have come from Kerala: Karnataka official

http://www.newkerala.com/news5.php?a...lnews&id=38661

Mysore, June 13:

The outbreak of chikungunya, which has affected a large number of villagers of Pushpagiri and Belavatha villages on the outskirts of the city, might have come from neighbouring Kerala, Karnataka Health and Family Welfare Director Dr M S Rudrappa said today.

Talking to reporters here after visiting the affected villages, he said the state government would set up Drug Distribution Centres (DDC) in the bordering districts of Chamarajanagara and Kodagu to supply medicines to the villagers as precautionary measure. The centre would be opened on every 1000 population.

More than 1000 villagers were affected by chikungunya, he said there were more than 70 suspected cases in the Pushpagiri village.

Samples of blood was taken from patients and sent to Victoria hospital at Bangalore for testing. The detailed reports were expected from the hospital in a week, he added.

He announced that eight teams were constituted to look after and surveillance at the affected places in the villages. There was no need to panic and the outbreak was seasonal. No hospitalisation was required and the patients could be treated in their residence itself. Seven days of treatment would be given to them, he added.

Dr Rudrappa said reports were received about suspected chikungunya cases in Sinduvalli village on Mysore-Nanjangud road, with more than 50 people allegedly affected.

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[prepdeb]

Re: VIRAL FEVER IN SINDHUVALLI: 2000 TAKE ILL

Sindhuvalli, also spelt as Sindhavalli, is located in Mysore District of Karnataka.

It is about 12 km south of Mysore, the district headquarters.

Nearest airport is Bangalore International Airport. Mysore Junction Railway Station is the nearest railway station.

"This is unsettling news, hope they quickly identify the virus"

[Gert van der Hoek]

Re: VIRAL FEVER IN SINDHUVALLI: 2000 TAKE ILL

Chikungunya hits Sinduvalli village

Mysore, June 14: Even as the district administration had stepped up the medical care for the suspected Chikungunya outbreak in a few villages on the outskirts of the City, fresh cases were reported in the Sinduvalli village on Mysore-Nanjangud road.

The Primary Health Centre Doctor Nagarthna told UNI here that so fanearly 120 cases had been reported during surveillance in the village which has a population of nearly 7,000. Samples of the victims' blood had been sent to hospitals for testing.

Drinking water being supplied to the village could be severely contaminated with drainage water getting mixed, following damage to pipes, she said.

She said initially it was suspected to be malaria or dengue.

However, the symptoms were different. A camp office was opened in the village for testing.

Meanwhile,a 40 year-old woman Sakamma died of heart attack today. However, the doctors ruled out that the death was due to any disease. The post-mortem report also confirmed that she died of heart attack. But the villagers claimed that she died due to the disease.

Medical care in the Pushpagiri village where more then 1,000 people had been affected suspected Chikungunya like disease,was also stepped up.

Doctors, anganwadi workers and social workers were pressed into service. Medicines were also despatched to local hospitals from the district centre. Blood tests were being done at the camps and the results made available on the spot.

Officials assured that treatment would be provided free of cost to patients and medicines supplied until they completely recovered.

http://www.newkerala.com/news5.php?action=fullnews&id=39065

[Gert van der Hoek]

Re: VIRAL FEVER IN SINDHUVALLI: 2000 TAKE ILL

Archive Number 20070614.1951
Published Date 14-JUN-2007
Subject PRO/EDR> Febrile disease - India (Kerala): RFI


UNDIAGNOSED ILLNESS - INDIA (KERALA): REQUEST FOR INFORMATION
************************************************** ***********
A ProMED-mail post
<http://www.promedmail.org>
ProMED-mail is a program of the International Society for Infectious Diseases

http://www.isid.org

Date: 13 Jun 2007
Source: Malayala Manorama [trans. and summarized by T. Jacob John, edited]

http://www.manoramaonline.com

The number of fever cases this season [2007] has gone up to 550 000.
This is an undeclared emergency, and the help of the Army has been
obtained by the state government.

Army personnel are cleaning up the areas and introducing
anti-mosquito-breeding measures and killing adult mosquitoes. Army
doctors are leading clinical and preventive measures in many towns.
Hundreds of deaths have been reported, but there is no official
confirmation or count or an organized way of collecting authentic
data. There was a disease surveillance system in place, but it was
scrapped in 2003 upon declaring Kerala as the healthiest place in
India.

According to news reports, fever cases include chikungunya, dengue,
leptospirosis and typhoid fever. Apparently, all of them are being
confirmed in different laboratories in which small numbers are
tested. The government health system has been overwhelmed by the
number of persons entering hospitals, and that has resulted in panic
and the army's assistance.

The mosquito-borne fevers chikungunya and dengue cannot spread to
such a large population in such a short time, especially as
chikungunya infected a number of people last year [2006], and they
are, therefore, immune; dengue has been endemic for 2 decades, and,
again, a large proportion should be immune.

--
Communicated by:
Dr T Jacob John
Retired Prof & Head, Dept of Clinical Virolgy,
Christian Medical College,
Vellore
<vlr_tjjohn@sancharnet.in>

[Dr. John's interpretation is that a contagious infection is present.
By contagious he means person-to-person transmitted, not via a
vehicle or vector. He goes on to say that "Respiratory transmitted
fevers are very few, and influenza is a number one possibility. Most
of the deaths are in persons over 60 years old, according to
newspaper reports. That too fits with an influenza diagnosis.
Epidemic influenza is not readily suspected because of the wide age
range involved, the severe systemic symptoms, the lack of
familiarity, and the lack of laboratory testing. Sometimes the most
obvious is the easiest to miss."

ProMED thanks Dr. John for this report. This large number of febrile
infections exceeds the number of recent chikungunya virus infections
in Kerala. In October 2006, some 100 000 suspected cases (reported by
MedIndia.com
http://www.medindia.com/news/view_news_main.asp?x=14772)
with at least 70 deaths (reported by BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/5405680.stm)
in Kerala due to chikungunya virus infection were reported in the
popular press. It will be important for samples from a significant
number of the febrile patients to be tested in the laboratory to
establish the etiology or etiologies of these illnesses. ProMED
requests further information about the laboratory results and about
the epidemic, indicating how long it has been going on, specific
locations of the cases, and the sex/age breakdown of those affected.

A map of Kerala, India can be accessed at:

http://mapsofindia.com/maps/kerala/kerala.htm

- Mod.TY]

http://www.promedmail.org/pls/askus/f?p=2400:1001:78987::NO::F2400_P1001_BACK_PAGE,F2400_P1001_PUB_MAIL_ID:1000,37976

[hawkeye]

Re: VIRAL FEVER IN SINDHUVALLI: 2000 TAKE ILL

Villagers, officials in row over womans death
Mysore, dhns:
The death of 40-year-old Sakamma at Sindhuvalli village has only deepened the mystery: Is it chikungunya, as the villagers tend to believe it is?

The death of 40-year-old Sakamma at Sindhuvalli village has only deepened the mystery: Is it chikungunya, as the villagers tend to believe it is? But Assistant Health Officer Prasad and Zilla Panchayat Vice-President Marigowda say she died of a heart attack at a hospital here.
Whatever the true reason, a visit to her village, 15 km from here, is revealing enough. Three teams of doctors were seen attending to villagers with symptoms of chikungunya or typhoid. The villagers maintain that the doctors came here only a day ago, in response to a month-old request for medical help!

The doctors claim they have been here “much before”, leading at one stage to an argument between the doctors and the villagers. The villagers now demand that all of them be examined and treated “if necessary, in a week’s time”.

Fuel to fire
The absence of Gram Panchayat officials, especially its president, only added fuel to the fire. The villagers blame the GP for the current situation, saying drains haven’t been cleaned for a month now. They even suspect drinking water is contaminated with drain water, “which may have caused Sakamma’s death”.

They in fact vented their anger with officials by locking up the GP office. Mr Marigowda, who was present at the spot, then ordered that 15 daily wagers be appointed in two days time for “the cleaning work”. He also said ZP and Taluk Panchayat funds would be diverted for providing basic facilities to villages.

Minister backs off
Health Minsiter R Ashok, who was scheduled to visit both Pushpagiri and Sindhuvalli, which have both reported ‘suspect’ cases, has cancelled his plans.
Chikungunya or not, what cannot be denied is that Sindhuvalli is apallingly lacking in hygiene and basic facilities.

GP’S ACTION
Gesture spurned
* While the TVS factory located near the village wants to adopt the village, it hasn’t got the green signal. In fact, the GP wants the company to divert the funds to itself instead of the company “independently providing facilities”.
* The GP has appointed only one woman, Pushpavalli, to clean the roads and drains of Sindhuvalli that houses 5,000 people. What’s more Pushpavalli claims she hasn’t been paid for the past four months. She has been on the job for 25 years now.