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(http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/feedback_f.asp) Two more

life-threatening infections strike Kerala

Web posted at: 7/18/2007 7:17:37

Source ::: The Peninsula/ By John Mary

Thiruvananthapuram • Compounding miseries of the monsoon and near-epidemic

fevers, Kerala is into two more two more life-threatening infections –

kala-azar (black fever) and typhus.

Health Minister P K Sreemathy told the Assembly today that reports of

kala-azar had come in from Kollam, Kozhikode and Thrissur districts while

typhus

claimed a child in Kozhikode. Suspected cases of scrub typhus were reported

from three places in Thiruvananthapuram.

Kala-azar is a chronic and potentially fatal parasitic disease of the

viscera (the internal organs, particularly the liver, spleen and bone marrow),

caused leishmania donovani and transmitted by sand fly bites in parts of Asia,

Africa and South America.

Kala-azar is associated with fever, loss of appetite, fatigue, enlargement

of the liver, spleen and nodes and suppression of the bone marrow.

Typhus is any one of several similar diseases caused by louse-borne

bacteria. Severe headache, high fever, muscle pain, swollen lymph nodes and

skin rash

are some of the symptoms. Rickettsia is endemic in rodent hosts, including

mice and rats, and spreads to humans through mites, fleas and body lice. The

vector flourishes under conditions of poor hygiene. In tropical countries,

typhus is often mistaken for dengue fever.

Sreemathy said the Health Department had initiated steps to contain

kala-azar and awaited the supply of testing kits from the National Institute of

Virology. The National Institute of Communicable Disease unit at Kozhikode

would

assess the incidence of typhus, especially whether it had started spreading.

Reports about the two fresh infections had come the day after a visiting

Federal team ruled out chikungunya deaths in the State and debunked reports on

“

tomato-feverâ€. Mosquitoes, agents of yellow fever and West Nile fever, were

found in Kerala but no cases had been reported.

Indian Council of Medical Research director-general Nirmal Kumar Ganguly

said the other day that chikungunya infection was on the decline and

fortunately

there was no virus mutation since the disease outbreak more than six months

ago. It could be eradicated in 18 months through vector control measures, he

said.

The Health Minister, who had been at pains to point out that there had no

chikungunya deaths, had confirmed 173 fever-related deaths, mainly arising from

co-morbid conditions of those stricken by chikungunya.

However, Opposition leader Oommen Chandy alleged that the actual death toll

on account of fevers was 562, and not 173 as Sreemathy had stated. He said

the Government had remained a callous spectator, denying insurance for

patients, most of them poor.

 

 

 

 

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