CHENNAI: At a time when the Health Department is into an overdrive to address a sudden spike in the number of swine flu cases, government data shows besides the influenza, cases of dengue too have witnessed an alarming increase in the State this year compared to January 2016.
The Health department’s data show that while dengue cases were reported only in Ramanathapuram in the second week of January 2016, this year, dengue cases were reported in Virudhunagar, Nagercoil and Tiruvannamalai districts in the first week of January.
And in the second week of January, dengue cases were reported in Ramanathapuram (Paramakudi) and Tirunelveli (Sankarankoil) districts.
However, a senior official in the health department said the cases were sporadic and the spread of infections was well under control. The official gave another list of districts in which, he said, cases of dengue were reported this year so far – Tirupur, Thoothukudi, Tirunelveli, Ramanathapuram and Tiruchy.
“There was one death from dengue last month and we are focusing on spreading awareness about water storing practices,” said Dr K Kolandaswamy, Director of Public Health.
Asserting that there were no “outbreaks”, but only sporadic cases, Kolandaswamy said it was stagnation of fresh water and open storage of water that helped Aedes aegypti mosquito, the carrier of the dengue-causing virus, to breed.
The official said the main challenge was the water storing practices in rural areas. Though there were no rains recently, even a small quantity of rain water stagnating in unused containers, bottles, tubes and coconut shells offered a breading ground to Aedes aegypti mosquitoes.
Dengue is a viral fever transmitted by the bite of virus-loaded Aedes aegypti mosquito. The fever comes five-six days after the bite.
There are two types of dengue: dengue fever and dengue haemorrhagic fever (DHF). Dengue fever is a severe, flu-like illness and Dengue haemorrhagic fever is a more severe form of the disease, which may even lead to death.
However, the health officials refused to share the data on the exact number of dengue cases reported in the State so far this year.
In 2016, 2,531 dengue cases and five deaths were reported.