Nalini Ravichandran | ENS

T Muruganandham | ENS

IT TOOK A POLITICAL AGITATION AND THE RECENT PRODDING BY CHIEF MINISTER M KARUNANIDHI FOR THE HEALTH DEPARTMENT BABUS TO REALISE THAT MOSQUITOES WERE MORE THAN IRRITANTS; THEY COULD BE KILLERS. EXPRESS EXAMINES THE SCENARIO

G Saravanan | ENS

THE Chennai Corporation recently woke up and intensified fogging and fumigation at all vulnerable points following a spate of complaints. The banks of the several channels and storm water drains crisscrossing Chennai saw civic staff engaged in spraying anti-larvaecite in large numbers.

In spite of all efforts the district malaria department has utterly failed to control the disease. Comparing to last year the number of malaria patients has gone up this year. At the same time the Annual Parasite Index (API) has also increased. But the department claims that malaria is under control this year and only one patient died so far this year.

Mumbai: Even as cases of chikungunya are on the rise in the city, doctors are puzzled over a new viral fever that mimics symptoms of chikungunya, measles and dengue. While several confirmed cases of chikungunya have been reported from private hospitals in South and Central Mumbai, there are more cases of this unknown fever.

BHUBANESWAR: The State Government today signed an MoU with the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) for establishment of an Indian Institute of Public Health (IIPH) in Orissa.

BHUBANESWAR: Malaria infection in Orissa, where the disease has long been a major public health issue, lately is showing an interesting change in its distribution, prevalence and of course,

Despite the swine flu epidemic that had gripped the city for most part of 2009, the residents had a rather welcome change in store. The dengue fever, which had been at its peak in the last three years, saw a drastic decline. The cases reported in 2009 were merely one-fourth of the cases reported in the city in 2008.

This can happen only in Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC). Apparently, malaria clinics of the civic body are being run not by doctors but by laboratory technicians and pharmacists, with the latter also prescribing medicine to patients who visit these clinics.

A senior official of the health department of KMC said, over the past one year no doctor has been assigned to look