R B Jagadish
Daijiworld Media Network – Karkala (EP)
Karkala, Jun 9: Hundreds of people are infected with Dengue in Mala village near here. The department of health has remained indifferent. Besides being in the foothills of Western Ghats, the Mala village is also the origin of Swarna River.
Dr B Jayarama Rai
People of Kerala origin are in large number s here. Most of them are employed in rubber plantations. Stagnant water on dry rubber leaves and elsewhere in the monsoons causes the birth and growth of Aedis female mosquitoes responsible for the spread of Dengue fever. As those mosquitoes bite during the day and suck the blood, mostly plantation workers get infected with Dengue.
Files in the Nitte Gajria hospital show that hundreds of people have been infected with Dengue from March and have taken treatment here. 22 people suffering from Dengue are in the hospital at present. The fever which was earlier found in Mala has spread to nearby Mudaru, Nalluru and Edu villages.
Vinutha (18), daughter of Bantwal Vamadapadavu resident Anthappa, who was continuing her education in a college in Karkal by staying in the house of her grandmother, was infected by Dengue and admitted to Karkala TMA hospital on May 31. She breathed her last without responding to treatment on June 3. Nalluru Puchabettu resident Thrishala Jain (34) who was also suffering from Dengue was admitted to Gajria hospital on June 2 also died without responding to treatment.
There was a controversy regarding waste water flowing to nearby Nalluru grama from hotels in Bajegoli market and commercial complexes. Social worker and cleanliness campaigner Bajegoli Gayatri Prabhu had led a campaign in this regard and the deputy commissioner was forced to come to the place and solve the problem. But ironically Damodar Prabhu, husband of Gayatri Prabhu is undergoing treatment for Dengue at Gajaria hospital.
Dr B Jayarama Rai, medical director at Gajria hospital said that as the Dengue cases are on the rise during monsoons, more precautions and preventive measures need to be taken by all.