Date:18/06/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/06/18/stories/2007061805240100.htm

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Fever claims 8 more lives in State

Special Correspondent

ARMY IN ACTION: An army team examining a patient at a medical camp at Chunkappara, in Mallappally taluk in Pathanamthitta, on Sunday.

There was no abatement in mosquito-borne viral fevers in South and Central Kerala on Sunday, with eight more deaths attributed to such diseases being reported from Pathanamthitta, Kottayam and Kollam districts.

Hundreds of new cases of fever reached the hospitals in these districts, in addition to Thiruvananthapuram, Alappuzha and Idukki on Sunday. Pathanamthitta reported four deaths, Kottayam three and Kollam one death on Sunday.

The fever outbreak has claimed over 60 lives in the State in the last two months. District-wise count suggested that at least 15,000 people were still in the hospitals, including private ones. Government hospitals and medical camps in these areas were crowded with patients.

Those who died of fever-related complications in Pathanamthitta on Sunday are: Rosamma, 58, of Vechoochira; Janaki, 60, of Konni; Ponnamma, 52, of Malayalappuzha; and Madhavan, 80, of Konni. In Kottayam, the deceased are: Augusty, 80, of Pala Parappally; Thankamma Gopidas, 35, of Kanakkri; and Akshaya Benny, 7, of Changanassery. In Kollam, Ponnamma, 30, of Edaman died of viral fever on Sunday.

Kottayam, the worst-hit, had 7,213 fever patients admitted to various hospitals in the district. The Health Department suspected chikungunya affliction in the case of 463 of them.

Pathanamthitta had 2,846 fever patients in hospitals, 81 of them with suspected attack of chikungunya. As many as 719 patients, 20 of them showing symptoms of chikungunya, reached the hospitals in Thiruvananthapuram on Sunday. Medical teams from the Army and the Navy were assisting the State's healthcare machinery in conducting medical camps in the affected areas.