VELLORE: Now that most of the rain-hit areas of Chennai are limping back to life, noted virologist Dr Jacob John, formerly of the Christian Medical College (CMC) here has warned of disease outbreaks that could pose severe public health problems in the days to come.
However, he says, this can be averted through cooperation between the government and the affected people, and the timely provision of vaccines.
Speaking to Express, Dr John said that the diseases one could expect following the rains and floods, due to contaminated water and food in Chennai, namely, are leptospirosis, typhoid, cholera, and hepatitis A. All of these require immediate medical attention.
Leptospirosis is caused by dead rats, which store the micro-organisms in their carcass. This has the capacity to cause many diseases, including leptospirosis of the kidney. When people wade through the flood or stagnant water, the feet become soft, which helps the leptospirosis organisms from rat urine to sneak into the human body. Those affected by this disease would have high fever, body ache, joint pain etc., which can be commonly mistaken for dengue.
The Chennai Corporation should therefore keep an adequate stock of tetracycline and doxycycline antibiotics in the affected regions, and administer doses to everyone affected in the floods immediately. Following this, two more doses would have to be administered after one week, each depending upon need.
Around 20 to 30 per cent of those down with leptospirosis who recover, are temporarily more likely to suffer a secondary attack affecting vital organs such as the kidney, liver, heart etc. This could turn out to be fatal, if timely preventive measures are not taken.
“Chennai is notorious for leptospirosis outbreaks, which have been well documented since the 1980s,” he pointed out.
The second outbreak that one should watch out for is typhoid fever. Every individual from the affected regions should be given protein-conjugated vaccines immediately, without waiting for the appearance of the disease’s symptoms.
According to him, very inexpensive indigenous vaccines are available in the market and it should be the responsibility of the authorities to ensure that all exposed persons are administered one dose of the vaccine immediately.
An outbreak of hepatitis A can be triggered by the contaminated stools of infected persons spreading through water. Initially, the disease could appear to be spreading slowly but becomes difficult to contain when more people are infected. Again, vaccines are available both of Indian and Chinese make.
Two doses of the prescribed vaccine should be taken by everyone in the affected areas.
Cholera outbreaks are another public health issue for which the authorities should be watchful. For cholera, oral vaccines are available, and enough doses should be kept ready for any eventuality. But typically, there is no need to wait for outbreaks and people should be administered these vaccines as soon as possible.
He also suggested that residents of Chennai could go to their nearest physician, and get these vaccine shots without waiting for the authorities to offer them.