Dengue continues to ravage Chittoor eastern mandals

August 26, 2018 12:00 am | Updated 04:18 am IST - CHITTOOR

Lack of safe drinking water, drainage system, facilities at govt. hospitals adds to the problem

About a dozen villages, mostly the SC/ST habitations, of the eastern parts of Chittoor district, are still reeling under the threat of dengue and viral fevers, after the death of more than 40 persons in Varadaiahpalem, B.N. Kandriga, KVB Puram and Satyavedu mandals, between April 2017 and January 2018.

People of Battalavallam, Karipakam, Chinna Pandur, Perindesam, Thimmasamudram and several other small hamlets and colonies in the eastern belt never thought that the the dreaded dengue menace would hit them so hard, claiming the family members in alarming number.

Lack of safe drinking water, absence of a pucca drainage system and poor facilities at the government hospitals to treat dengue are general civic problems resulting in viral fevers whenever the rainy season arrives since a decade.

The situation took a serious turn when a teenager boy of Thimmasamudram village of KVB Puram mandal called the then Collector Siddartha Jain in April 2017, informing him that dengue had claimed four lives in the village and more than 50 families were reeling under its impact with several victims reaching out to hospitals in Chennai as the government hospitals in rural areas were not taking the epidemic seriously.

Special camps

It exposed the high vulnerability of the Chittoor rural side to viral fevers. The Collector had to directly supervise a two-week long battle against dengue in the area with special medical camps everywhere.

After a lull of two months, dengue returned to the eastern mandals in June the same year. A study revealed that a majority of the families were either owners or lorry drivers in private transport division. With the breadwinners falling sick, the dengue had a telling effect on their livelihood.

The prevalence, which was limited to a radius of 5 km in the KVB Puram mandal, had started spreading to the neighbouring mandals. From June last year till the early months of 2018, more than 2,000 patients with symptoms of dengue and other viral fevers were admitted to various private hospitals in Tirupati, Bengaluru, Chennai, Nellore and Vellore.

The affected families alleged that the officials were apathetic to their plight and there was no lack of coordination between the panchayat raj and the medical and health departments, which they believed had led to outbreak of viral fevers.

Again, the dengue phenomenon turned alarming when a number of villages in Satyavedu and Varadaiahpalem mandals came under its impact from June 2017. Between September and October, the officials had put the figure of casualties at more than 20 from the belt.

Making things worse, the threat of “yellow fever” had started looming large in the region from October. The impact was such that a six-member team of medical experts from New Delhi rushed to Varadaiahpalem mandal on October 27 and made a whirlwind inspection tour of Battalavallam, Karipakkam, Rachakandriga, Chinna Pandur and Pulivallam villages, conducting an in-depth study of 10 casualty cases. The World Health Organization (WHO) officials from Geneva also expressed concern at the suspected prevalence of yellow fever and remained in touch with the district administration.

Though the south-west monsoon had failed, the eastern mandals by their proximity to the Bay of Bengal, are as usual expected to witness heavy rains from September, again posing the grave threat of outbreak of viral fevers.

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