Vilathikulam villagers fear Chikungunya

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Vilathikulam villagers fear Chikungunya
Saturday September 2 2006 11:09 IST
http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IET20060902004730&Page=T&Title=Southern+News+-+Tamil+Nadu&Topic=0
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THOOTHUKUDI: Around 300 villagers in five villages near Vilathikulam in Thoothukudi district feared that Chikungunya affected them. However, official sources brushed aside their fears.

But the panchayat president of Ayanvadamalapuram, one of the five affected villages near Vilathikulam, Varadharajan, confirmed the complaint that several of the people in Ayanvadamalapuram, Veerapatti, Arunachalapuram, Keelakaranthai and Melanambiyapuram complained of Chikungunya for the past one-week. However, the doctors from Nagalapuram primary health centre visited the villages only once and distributed some tablets.

??After that none came to see us,?? lamented Varadharajan. Since some people had fallen ill and complained of vomiting and diarrhoea, the people themselves with the help of the Vadamalapuram panchayat president administered glucose to maintain body metabolism.

When contacted, the Deputy Director of Health Services, Kovilpatti, Selvakumari, claimed she was in Chennai.

However, the superintendent of the office of the deputy director contacted Selvakumari and conveyed to the Press that immediately on information of the complaint, a doctors? team visited the affected villages and provided treatment.

Still, official sources maintained that it was only ordinary fever and not Chikungunya as claimed by the villagers.