WoW mosquitoes.LUCKNOW, India, Nov 04, 2003 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX) -- Mosquito-borne
viruses dengue fever and encephalitis have killed 223 people in India's largest
state in three months, a health official said Tuesday.
Dr. Awdhesh Srivastava, head of epidemiology at the Health Directorate in
India's northern Uttar Pradesh state, said that 926 cases of encephalitis and
384 cases of dengue fever had been reported since August.
"At least 205 people have died of encephalitis while 18 people have died of
dengue so far," he told The Associated Press.
Alarmed at the spread of the viruses carried by mosquitoes, the High Court in
Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh, has reprimanded city officials for their
slack efforts at maintaining sanitation.
Since September, thousands of people have contracted the disease, which spreads
in areas where mosquitoes breed in large numbers, such as stagnant pools of
water. The epidemic has spread due to the unusually strong monsoon season, which
ended several weeks ago.
More than 7,400 cases of dengue have been reported across India, according to
the federal Health Ministry.
Symptoms include fever and, in severe cases, some patients suffer bleeding from
their internal organs and need blood transfusions. Some die of shock or heart
failure.
"We are terribly short of fogging machines though we have enough stocks of the
insecticides required for spraying," Lucknow Municipal Commissioner S.P. Singh
told AP. "We have only two fogging machines for the entire city," of 3.7 million
people, he said.
Sheetal Shukla, 4, died of dengue in a government hospital Monday night.
"She had fallen ill five days back and was admitted in the hospital on Thursday.
Despite the best available medication my daughter could not be saved," her
father Rajendra Shukla told a local television channel.
Dengue has spread rapidly in districts adjoining the national capital New Delhi,
Lucknow and Kanpur, the two largest cities in Uttar Pradesh.
Dr H.P. Kumar, the head of the state's health services, said that several parts
of Lucknow were being fumigated to kill the mosquitoes.
"The number of infections could rise as heavy monsoon rains have left pools of
stagnant water, which serve as breeding grounds for mosquitoes," Kumar said.
This year, Uttar Pradesh experienced one of the wettest monsoon rains in 25
years. Although the rains are expected to boost the agriculture-based economy,
they have also caused floods and led to a spate of mosquito-borne disease such
as malaria, dengue and encephalitis.
Monalisa Chaudhry, the chief spokeswoman for the federal Sanjay Gandhi Post
Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences in the city, said patients were being
turned away because the hospital was "finding it extremely difficult to cope
with the increasing demand for platelets," needed to cure dengue.
Local officials in Lucknow are appealing to residents to maintain clean
neighborhoods.
Dengue fever is indigenous to parts of Asia and the Caribbean. The World Health
Organization has estimated that the disease infects nearly 100 million people
worldwide each year. About 5 percent die.
By BABU LAL SHARMA
Associated Press Writer= ap_topic:General;
Copyright 2003 Associated Press, All rights reserved
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