8,000 chikungunya cases in 7 months; Karnataka tops national chart

Bengaluru, Aug 12: As many as 8,644 cases of chikungunya have been reported in Karnataka as on July 31 this year, the highest in the country. The second on the list — Maharashtra, with 2,524 cases — has less than a third of the state’s count.

According to data submitted in Parliament on August 10 by the Union health ministry, Karnataka contributes 50% of the total 17,311 chikungunya cases in India.

Although the number of cases has dropped marginally, the data suggests no lessons have been learnt to stem the spread of the virus. Karnataka had topped the list last year too.

Figures obtained from the National Vector-Borne Disease Control Programme show that of the total 16,976 chikungunya cases reported till July 23, 2017 across the country, the highest — 8,930 — were from Karnataka.

Udupi, Dakshina Kannada most affected

Maharashtra (2,379) and Gujarat (2,103) were second and third, respectively, on the list.

The state health and family welfare department claimed the numbers are misleading. “The data shows Karnataka has a robust reporting system and surveillance has been intensive compared to other states,” said Dr S Pushparaj, director, health and family welfare department. “This year, nature has come to our rescue since the bountiful monsoon has destroyed larvae. Only in case of intermittent rains, mosquito breeding increases.”

The most-affected areas in Karnataka are Udupi, Dakshina Kannada, Haveri, Tumakuru and Bengaluru.

Dr Ambanna Gowda, consultant internal medicine specialist with Fortis Hospital, said the actual number of cases is underreported. “There are four governmentrun labs which conduct blood culture tests for chikungunya, but they take four weeks to reveal results,” Gowda said.

“We cannot wait for the report to start treatment since the patient’s condition will deteriorate. So we do the ‘Chik IGM test’, a rapid diagnosis test. This, sometimes, gives false negative results and the diagnosis and treatment are largely based on the experience of the physician. Cases which return positive for the rapid diagnosis test are not included in the state’s data,” he added.

Gowda said Fortis has seen at least 400 suspected chikungunya cases in the past couple of months. “The geriatric population is the worst-affected and recovery takes a long time,” he added.