Gert van der Hoek
In Memoriam - Editor, Senior Moderator
Salt Lake is Calcutta / Kolkata region
Issue Date: Friday, December 07, 2007
Chikungunya rages on in Salt Lake
Four cases of chikungunya were detected in Salt Lake on Thursday, taking the number of people affected by the virus in the township to 38.
Officials fear thousands are affected by the virus in Salt Lake and its adjoining areas.
The patients diagnosed with chikungunya on Thursday were from Nazrul Pally and Baro Kapat, in ward 14 of Bidhannagar Municipality.
In Calcutta, seven people have been affected by the virus since March, but no fresh cases were reported on Thursday.
?Thousands may have been affected by chikungunya in North 24-Parganas, though only a handful have been admitted to hospital,? said a health department official. ?More than 2.5 lakh people in the district have suffered from chikungunya and other viral infections over the past six months.?
Health officials visited the affected areas in Salt Lake. ?We are asking people to prevent water accumulation in their neighbourhoods,? an official said. ?Anti-larvae repellents are being sprayed.?
Similar measures are also being taken in the city, said a Calcutta Municipal Corporation official.
Chikungunya is a ?relatively rare form of viral fever? caused by an alphavirus spread through Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. In October 2006, the disease was detected in 15-odd villages in Baduria and Swarupnagar, in North 24-Parganas.
Chikungunya was first reported in the state 44 years ago. According to the May 1980 issue of the journal of the Indian Council for Medical Research, around 200 people died of the disease in Calcutta in 1963. Lakhs of people suffered from the infection.
?Chikungunya is usually not fatal, though patients may die if there is a coexistence of other viral infections, like dengue,? said an expert.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1071207/asp/calcutta/story_8639995.asp#
Note: a "lakh" stands for 100,000 .
Issue Date: Friday, December 07, 2007
Chikungunya rages on in Salt Lake
Four cases of chikungunya were detected in Salt Lake on Thursday, taking the number of people affected by the virus in the township to 38.
Officials fear thousands are affected by the virus in Salt Lake and its adjoining areas.
The patients diagnosed with chikungunya on Thursday were from Nazrul Pally and Baro Kapat, in ward 14 of Bidhannagar Municipality.
In Calcutta, seven people have been affected by the virus since March, but no fresh cases were reported on Thursday.
?Thousands may have been affected by chikungunya in North 24-Parganas, though only a handful have been admitted to hospital,? said a health department official. ?More than 2.5 lakh people in the district have suffered from chikungunya and other viral infections over the past six months.?
Health officials visited the affected areas in Salt Lake. ?We are asking people to prevent water accumulation in their neighbourhoods,? an official said. ?Anti-larvae repellents are being sprayed.?
Similar measures are also being taken in the city, said a Calcutta Municipal Corporation official.
Chikungunya is a ?relatively rare form of viral fever? caused by an alphavirus spread through Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. In October 2006, the disease was detected in 15-odd villages in Baduria and Swarupnagar, in North 24-Parganas.
Chikungunya was first reported in the state 44 years ago. According to the May 1980 issue of the journal of the Indian Council for Medical Research, around 200 people died of the disease in Calcutta in 1963. Lakhs of people suffered from the infection.
?Chikungunya is usually not fatal, though patients may die if there is a coexistence of other viral infections, like dengue,? said an expert.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1071207/asp/calcutta/story_8639995.asp#
Note: a "lakh" stands for 100,000 .