Date:21/09/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/09/21/stories/2006092117270300.htm

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

No fresh case of chikungunya in city for the past five days

R.K. Radhakrishnan

Corporation, PWD doing their bit to prevent breeding of mosquitoes

Up to September 16, as many as 593 cases have been reported

1,200 out of 1.9-lakh containers are breeding grounds for mosquitoes

CHENNAI: Some good news for people fearing an attack of chikungunya: no fresh case has been reported in the city in the past five days, according to Chennai Corporation.

How reliable is this information? Well, the Corporation officials say they have reminded all hospitals and medical practitioners that it is mandatory that any fresh incidence of any communicable disease be reported to the nearest Assistant Health Officer. No choice there; it's mandated by law.

Threefold increase

In June this year, the official statistics say 560 people were afflicted by the disease. This rose more than threefold to 1,785 in July and dipped slightly in August to 1,397. Up to September 16, as many as 593 cases have been reported. There have been no fresh cases since then, a senior Corporation official said.

One interesting finding of the Corporation is that some city residents, while complaining about the `inaction' of the civic body, have not been doing enough to control mosquito breeding in their own homes. Certain types of mosquitoes breed in fresh water and certain others in brackish water.

Mosquitoes transmit diseases such as chikungunya, malaria, filarial and cerebral malaria from one person to another and Chennai is notoriously endemic to malaria and filarial.

Blocked sunshades, unused tyres, open tanks and any place that stagnates water can end up as fertile breeding ground for mosquito.

Of the 52,024 houses checked by civic body staff, as many as 1061 houses turned out to be breeding sites! In the past few weeks, 1.9-lakh containers were checked; of this, over 1,200 turned out to be breeding grounds for mosquitoes.

It also helps that the Corporation has made sufficient provision for spraying operations to control mosquitoes. Also, the Public Works Department has finally got its act together and is keeping the Cooum and Adyar rivers flowing.

If the sand bars that form on the mouth of these rivers due to tidal action are not removed, water stagnates, allowing mosquitoes to breed. Once the sand bars are removed — and this has to be done periodically — seawater gushes in; and mosquitoes cannot breed in salt water.