JOIN USStudents down with dengue, chikungunya
Worried by this, the school authorities have organised a public awareness camp on Saturday, where the agenda includes demonstration of an experiment to prevent mosquito bites.
The Divya Shanthi School authorities informed Deccan Herald that one of its students, a six-year-old boy Leo Patrick, had even died due to chikungunya two weeks ago at Indira Gandhi Institute of Child Health Hospital. The hospital, however, denied any such death due to chikungunya.
On the mosquito control experiment, Colleen Samuel, founder director of Divya Shanti Trust, which runs the school, said: “We saw this experiment done by a primary student in Taiwan on the internet. So, we thought why not try it. We use sugar water and fresh yeast in old soda bottles, cover it with black paper and put it upside down in the classrooms. It may be because of the yeast but mosquitoes get attracted to it and we have found flies and spider too.”
The school’s surrounding has turned a breeding ground for mosquitoes. “A major problem is collection of garbage. Although, the municipal vehicle comes to collect the garbage, it dumps the waste nearby which is not cleared for nearly two weeks. In fact, the worst affected areas are Gowthampuram near Nagavara and Lingarajapuram, where at least two to three people from each family are suffering from fever. So we are facing an emergency situation here,” she revealed.
Apart from visiting Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital, many were consulting local doctors, who don’t even advice them to do blood test. This was why a basic awareness camp was necessary, she said.
When contacted, the ward’s health official said, “We began fogging the area since March and have conducted more than 10 medical camps. However, I feel the mosquito breeding in the area is more due to the construction activity.”
He said there was a spurt in viral fever cases but there were only suspected cases of dengue and chikungunya. “We have to collect the samples and then only we can say something. As far as I know, the dumping of garbage in the area is nowhere related to these diseases,” he said.