Date:09/06/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/06/09/stories/2007060912860100.htm

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11 more die of fever in Pathanamthitta district

Radhakrishnan Kuttoor

Many local bodies yet to swing into action: Minister

PATHANAMTHITTA: The death toll in the viral fever-hit Pathanamthitta district in the last one-month has gone up to 33, with 11 more fever patients succumbing to different ailments on Friday.

The dead were identified as Ambily (30) and Padmanabhan (56), both from Enadimangalam; Chandravally (68) and Sarasamma (88) from Chittar; Thankachan (65) and Lekshmikutty Amma (67) from Ranni-Perinad; Koshy Thomas (45 ) of Konni Anjilikunnu; Chellamma (70) of Kalanjoor; Vijayakumar (51) of Thannithode; Rachelamma Varghese (83) of Elakolloor; and Ramachandran (50) of Laha.

All the 11, who were suffering from various other diseases, had reportedly been undergoing treatment for viral fever at various hospitals for the past few days.

However, the Health Department has declined to accept the claim that viral fever had led to the deaths. The Health authorities attributed the cause of death to different ailments, in spite of the fact that those who had died had been rushed to various hospitals with typical symptoms of viral fever.

"It appears that the local self-Government institutions in the district as well as the political leadership are yet to realise the seriousness of the issue. It is a pity that they have been trying to shift the blame on others for the prevailing sorry state of affairs," said Thomas P. Thomas, environmentalist from Kozhencherry.

Health Minister P.K. Sreemathy too had stated that some local bodies in the district were not co-operating with the vector control drive while certain others were actively involved.

Some local body chiefs did not even turn up for the block-level meeting of panchayat presidents held in all nine blocks in the district on Friday to chalk out intensive vector control programmes.

Meanwhile, the public has expressed doubts over the Health authorities' statement on the cause of deaths. They say it is high time that the authorities accepted the fact that all those who had succumbed to the illness in the district were undergoing treatment for viral fever at one or the other hospital. There should be concerted efforts to contain the epidemic, they say.