VIJAYAWADA: The death of a villager of Chintakolla in Koduru mandal of Krishna district due to suspected swine flu has sparked fear among people of nearby villages prompting them to boycott Chintakolla for the past four days. Chintakolla villagers were not being allowed to enter the nearby villages. Children of the area were given holidays by school managements and even school buses stopped coming to the village. The ‘social boycott’ came to light on Sunday, prompting the district administration to organise a health camp in the village.
The fear of the people of neighbouring villages is that they too would get infected by H1N1 virus. The Medical and Health Department staff, who rushed to the village, however, clarified that the death was due to cardiac arrest and not because of swine flu as believed. Chintakolla is a small village with 80 houses and a population of 306.
According to officials, Pere Nancharaiah (43), a daily wager, was suffering from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and hypertension. He had fever and cough from November 14 and consulted Dr Srihari, a PMP at Avanigadda. Later, he went to another PMP at Koduru. As there was no improvement in his health condition, he visited Silicon Andhra Hospital at Kuchipudi, where he was treated as an outpatient. On November 29, he consulted another doctor at Repalle who referred the case to the Guntur Government General Hospital.
He was treated for respiratory infections at the GGH in Guntur. He left the GGH ignoring the advice of doctors and got himself admitted to Time Hospital at Autonagar in Vijayawada on December 1. Nancharaiah died on December 5 while undergoing treatment at the hospital. The doctors who treated him stated that he died of cardiac arrest and respiratory failure.
Following the death, villagers of Chintakolla were being boycotted by people of neighbouring villages. The private schools had unofficially declared holidays for the children of the village. The villagers also alleged that they were not being allowed to sit in autos and even milk vendors stopped coming to Chintakolla. The people of other villages announced the social boycott through the public address system. On Sunday, the villagers of Chintakolla took the social boycott issue to the notice of mandal level officials. Following the instructions of Krishna District Collector B Lakshmikantham, officials rushed to the village, set up a medical camp and conducted tests on all the villagers.
In the report submitted to the Collector, the District Medical and Health Officer said a medical camp was organised at the cyclone shelter in Chintakolla. Two paramedical teams were deployed in the village. No suspected swine flu case has been detected in the entire village. Cleaning of drains and fogging was conducted in the village. Sanitation in the village was also improved. All the PHCs in the area were alerted about the possible outbreak of viral infections. However, the officials ruled out the social boycott and said it was only a false rumour.
Speaking to TNIE, Collector Lakshmikantham said, “Chintakolla village was not boycotted. The villagers are getting all the amenities. Fair price shops and schools are functioning normally in the village. However, we have deployed health teams and also officials in the village to promote swine flu awareness among villagers and the precautions to be taken to protect themselves from the influenza. Everything is normal in the village.”
Patient died of respiratory failure
Pere Nancharaiah, a daily wager, was suffering from COPD and hypertension. He was treated at the Guntur GGH. He later got himself admitted to a hospital in Vijayawada. Doctors who treated him stated that he died of cardiac arrest and respiratory failure