The Hindu 08.08.2012
Corporation in denial mode as infections spread
The death of a five-year-old child in Meenambal Nagar in
Tondiarpet has put Chennai Corporation on the back foot. The
mentally-challenged child was admitted to the Government Stanley
Hospital with cold, cough, fever and diarrhoea, and passed away on
Friday.
Immediately after his death, Chennai
Corporation’s health officials admitted his siblings to the Communicable
Diseases Hospital in Tondairpet. A release from the Corporation said
the children, all between the ages of six years and 18 months, were
tested for cholera and since the tests results were negative, they were
discharged and sent home on Tuesday.
While the
Corporation has tried to assuage people’s fears of bacterial infections,
blood samples of a resident of South Boag Road were sent to King
Institute of Preventive Medicine on suspicion that she might have
leptospirosis. She was hospitalised last week. Two days ago, the test
results showed up positive for leptospirosis.
Mohamed
Ali, director of Weil and Pasteur Lepto Lab in Raja Annamalaipuram,
said the laboratory had seen a 20 per cent increase in number of samples
received for testing. Dr. Ali said the samples were mostly from
Madhavaram and Kodungaiyur areas where many hospitals specialised in
treatment of leptospirosis.
The bacterial infection
is generally associated with the rainy season and is caused due to
exposure to contaminated stagnant water. But now, his lab received
samples even during peak summer, Dr. Ali said.
“When
there is rain, contamination spreads faster but water infected with
bacteria from rats, cattle or stray dogs, can also spread the
infection,” he said.
Leptospire, the bacteria that
causes leptospirosis, needs water or moisture to survive. When an
infected rat or bandicoot urinates in a dry place, the organism dies,
but in wet conditions, it survives for 2-4 weeks and can infect animals
and human-beings.
According to a senior Corporation
health official, the civic body’s workers have been asked to identify
rat burrows along beaches, in godowns, warehouses and railway tracks,
and take steps to eliminate the rodents.
Two days ago, a woman’s blood sample tested positive for leptospirosis