Date:25/07/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/07/25/stories/2006072519500100.htm

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Chikungunya: Health Ministers' meet on July 30

Staff Reporter

The conference of southern States will discuss how to check the disease

5,400 village panchayats to be given fogging machines
Each machine costs Rs. 25,000

The disease has been checked to a great extent in Bellary, Raichur, Gulbarga and Bidar districts

BANGALORE: Health Ministers of the southern States will be conferring here on July 30 on ways to check the spread of chikungunya which threatens to assume epidemic proportions.

Minister for Health and Family Welfare R. Ashok told presspersons here on Monday that the objective of holding the conference was to exchange notes on tackling the disease, which is stated to have spread from foreign countries. The conference was a collective effort to seek the Centre's guidelines and financial assistance, he said.

The Government had been making efforts to contain the disease which was spreading fast in rural areas.

Besides allopathic medicines, it had been supplying Ayurvedic, Unani and homoeopathy medicines to the affected areas on demand.

Besides medicines, the State was fighting the disease with only 888 fogging machines. As the machines would come in handy in fighting similar water borne and fly borne diseases such as malaria, the Government was planning to provide them to each of the 5,400 village panchayats.