167 persons take ill
a fresh outbreak of chikungunya has affected villagers in Howrah district of West Bengal. The state health authorities prepared an action plan on November 6 to contain the outbreak.
District malaria officer Samarendra Kumar Sharma said house-to-house surveys are on and insecticide coated mosquito nets are being distributed among villagers. Information is given through loudspeakers and villagers have been asked to cover water tanks and vessels; the Aedes aegypti mosquito that spreads the disease breeds in freshwater and bites during the day. Medical teams asked residents of the four affected villages in Domjur Makardah block to minimize their contact with outsiders.
All persons in this area complaining of fever are being considered chikungunya-affected. As many as 167 persons were diagnosed suffering from chikungunya as on November 5. The disease symptoms are similar to those of denguefever, body ache and skin lesions.Patients are given symptomatic treatment. The disease had last struck North 24 Parganas district in 2007 and affected 800 persons. Resurgent chikungunya first appeared in Kerala in 2006 and has now spread across India.
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