<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>http://www.centralchronicle.com/20060925/2509304.htm
State Pulse: Karnataka: Chikungunya ravages
</TD></TR><TR><TD>[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]One problem with containing Chikungunya is that the systems in place for monitoring the disease are virtually non-existent, as is the infrastructure for prevention, control and cure- Vibha Varshney [/FONT]
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The directorate of health and family welfare services in Bangalore: an auto rickshaw entered the compound. A woman was helped off and she painfully hobbled her way towards the clinic. The 50-metre distance took around five minutes to traverse with her husband supporting her. When 38-year-old Nagamma finally made her way to the examination bed, her husband told me she had developed chikungunya symptoms two hours ago. They had travelled 16 km from their village, Kollandanahalli, in neighbouring Kanakapura taluka.
Karnataka, which reported the maximum number of suspected cases, is a good illustration of chikungunya's ravages. It first appeared in Gulbarga district in December 2005 and in the next seven months spread to all the districts of the state. Even though chikungunya is not fatal, its debilitating character deprives people of their livelihoods. The disease incapacitates people for anything between 15 days to three months because one of its main symptoms, excruciating joint pains, persists well after the fever caused by the disease subsides. In Karnataka, the disease came at a time when the land was being readied for the planting season - work was easy to find.
Throughout Karnataka, the evidence of how the disease impacts livelihoods was overwhelming. Yet, there has been no effort to document this. "Labour was difficult to find during the peak epidemic period," says Hanumantha Reddy of Navodaya Education and Environment Development Services, an NGO based in Ranebennur, Haveri district. His work on a water project was delayed due to labour shortage. M S Patil, a sub- inspector in Ranebennur, gave another example.
In the past two months, out of the 46 people working in his department, 12 had contracted chikungunya. Three were out for a month, three were off for 15 days and the others got a week off.
Loss of wages is the most important, but not the only economic fallout of chikungunya. Madiwalappa Angadi of Garag village in Dharwar district got the disease in the second week of June - his wife was already suffering. He had just finished planting cotton and, as was normal, started his day tending to his crop. But he was uneasy the whole day and by night he became feverish and his joints started paining. His family of seven depends on the approximately 3.5 hectares (ha) he owns. He could afford to rest only for five days because unless he took immediate steps, the incessant rains would destroy the whole crop. But he had a tough time for it was difficult to sit and even more diffficult to get up.
Weeds took over the field. Angadi finally had to hire labour, which was in short supply in the village - fortunately, villagers helped out by releasing their workers on a rotational basis. But he had to shell out Rs 50 a day per worker.
In Gudagur village in Ranebennur taluka, 40-year-old Shantamma Asundi was preparing to sleep, tired with housework. She first had fever and joint pains two months ago and still has relapses. In the family of five, she is the only woman and has to continue providing for the family even though the doctor says she should rest. "My sons would feel that I was acting because I did not want to provide food to them so I started working," she says. The disease seems to have the worst effect on women, who can't afford to rest. Doctors say, this could be the reason for repeated relapses.
In Kotur village, Kallava Garagad prefers not to go to defecate in the fields in the morning to avoid the walk and the squat. Doctors say that this is a trend with most patients. Some decide not to eat or drink to avoid tricky movements. Other than the obvious weakness and accumulation of toxins in the body, this also leads to accumulation of fluids in the body and worsens the swelling on the joints. People in villages that don't have PHCs are the worst off. Patients have to travel long distances to go to a doctor or buy medicines. Seventy-year-old Kalamma of Kachuvanahalli village in Bangalore rural district spends Rs 12 as bus fare every time she visits the doctor; she has made seven such visits. Moreover, she can get to the bus stop only if she gets a lift from passing vehicles. On each trip she gets Rs 50 worth of medicines and two injections for Rs 35 each. Three members in her family have suffered and they have spent a total of Rs 7,000 on treatment.
Kalamma sold her earrings to meet the cost.
The first batch of chikungunya cases was reported in the country in October 2005. But it was only in December that samples in Maharashtra tested positive for the chikungunya virus, a relatively unknown quantity outside research circles, especially because it had surfaced on a major scale 33 years ago.
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State Pulse: Karnataka: Chikungunya ravages
</TD></TR><TR><TD>[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]One problem with containing Chikungunya is that the systems in place for monitoring the disease are virtually non-existent, as is the infrastructure for prevention, control and cure- Vibha Varshney [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]
The directorate of health and family welfare services in Bangalore: an auto rickshaw entered the compound. A woman was helped off and she painfully hobbled her way towards the clinic. The 50-metre distance took around five minutes to traverse with her husband supporting her. When 38-year-old Nagamma finally made her way to the examination bed, her husband told me she had developed chikungunya symptoms two hours ago. They had travelled 16 km from their village, Kollandanahalli, in neighbouring Kanakapura taluka.
Karnataka, which reported the maximum number of suspected cases, is a good illustration of chikungunya's ravages. It first appeared in Gulbarga district in December 2005 and in the next seven months spread to all the districts of the state. Even though chikungunya is not fatal, its debilitating character deprives people of their livelihoods. The disease incapacitates people for anything between 15 days to three months because one of its main symptoms, excruciating joint pains, persists well after the fever caused by the disease subsides. In Karnataka, the disease came at a time when the land was being readied for the planting season - work was easy to find.
Throughout Karnataka, the evidence of how the disease impacts livelihoods was overwhelming. Yet, there has been no effort to document this. "Labour was difficult to find during the peak epidemic period," says Hanumantha Reddy of Navodaya Education and Environment Development Services, an NGO based in Ranebennur, Haveri district. His work on a water project was delayed due to labour shortage. M S Patil, a sub- inspector in Ranebennur, gave another example.
In the past two months, out of the 46 people working in his department, 12 had contracted chikungunya. Three were out for a month, three were off for 15 days and the others got a week off.
Loss of wages is the most important, but not the only economic fallout of chikungunya. Madiwalappa Angadi of Garag village in Dharwar district got the disease in the second week of June - his wife was already suffering. He had just finished planting cotton and, as was normal, started his day tending to his crop. But he was uneasy the whole day and by night he became feverish and his joints started paining. His family of seven depends on the approximately 3.5 hectares (ha) he owns. He could afford to rest only for five days because unless he took immediate steps, the incessant rains would destroy the whole crop. But he had a tough time for it was difficult to sit and even more diffficult to get up.
Weeds took over the field. Angadi finally had to hire labour, which was in short supply in the village - fortunately, villagers helped out by releasing their workers on a rotational basis. But he had to shell out Rs 50 a day per worker.
In Gudagur village in Ranebennur taluka, 40-year-old Shantamma Asundi was preparing to sleep, tired with housework. She first had fever and joint pains two months ago and still has relapses. In the family of five, she is the only woman and has to continue providing for the family even though the doctor says she should rest. "My sons would feel that I was acting because I did not want to provide food to them so I started working," she says. The disease seems to have the worst effect on women, who can't afford to rest. Doctors say, this could be the reason for repeated relapses.
In Kotur village, Kallava Garagad prefers not to go to defecate in the fields in the morning to avoid the walk and the squat. Doctors say that this is a trend with most patients. Some decide not to eat or drink to avoid tricky movements. Other than the obvious weakness and accumulation of toxins in the body, this also leads to accumulation of fluids in the body and worsens the swelling on the joints. People in villages that don't have PHCs are the worst off. Patients have to travel long distances to go to a doctor or buy medicines. Seventy-year-old Kalamma of Kachuvanahalli village in Bangalore rural district spends Rs 12 as bus fare every time she visits the doctor; she has made seven such visits. Moreover, she can get to the bus stop only if she gets a lift from passing vehicles. On each trip she gets Rs 50 worth of medicines and two injections for Rs 35 each. Three members in her family have suffered and they have spent a total of Rs 7,000 on treatment.
Kalamma sold her earrings to meet the cost.
The first batch of chikungunya cases was reported in the country in October 2005. But it was only in December that samples in Maharashtra tested positive for the chikungunya virus, a relatively unknown quantity outside research circles, especially because it had surfaced on a major scale 33 years ago.
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