Docs urge people not to get panicked over chikungunya

City dwellers should not get panicked over a recent outbreak of mosquito-borne chikungunya viral fever, physicians say.
The outbreak of chikungunya virus has created a new public health concern apart from dengue. It causes fever, muscle pain, headache, nausea, fatigue, rash and often very debilitating joint pain which could exist for days.
Aedes aegypti mosquito is the carrier of both chikungunya and dengue viruses. Chikungunya is largely non-lethal while dengue could be at times fatal, they said.
They also advised people to take rest and drink lot of water for preventing themselves from chikungunya attack. Doctor's advice is needed to take painkillers.
Besides, people need to prevent water stagnation in and around their home so that mosquitoes do not get a place to breed, they added.
  "If fever and pain linger, patients should visit the doctors and undergo tests as they may also suffer from dengue," director of the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) Prof Meerjady Sabrina Flora told the FE.
Patients with viral fever and cough have been thronging the city hospitals for the last few weeks.
During visit to Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) on Saturday, this correspondent found that outdoor section had been treating, on an average, 100 patients on the day.
From May 01 to May 20, around 80 patients with fever and joint pains visited Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU).
Female Aedes mosquitoes breed all the year round, but require stagnant pools of clean water. Early and frequent rain this year and stagnant water on dug-up roads are primary factors behind the spread of dengue and chikungunya, health experts said.
A high official of the ministry of health told the FE that the ministry has directed all the doctors of private and public hospitals and civil surgeons to report to the IEDCR and DGHS for any suspected case.
The country has been witnessing a rapid rise in the number of dengue cases in recent years. The Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) received reports of 3,162 dengue cases in 2015 and 6,020 last year, according to epidemiologists.
They said over 80 cases of chikungunya were recorded between the last week of December and May 14 last.
Most of these cases were identified between mid-April and May. Out of the cases, around 25 were identified in the first two weeks of the current month while 19 between late December and mid-January.
The health experts suggested the government step up mosquito control efforts for preventing the virus carried by the mosquito.
They said the cost for treatment of chikungunya is not expensive.  
When contacted, officials of Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) and Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) told the FE that the city corporations will intensify anti-mosquito drives to stem further spreading of the mosquito-borne chikungunya virus.
    talhabinhabib@yahoo.com