Kerala deaths not due to chikungunya: Ramdoss

Union Health Minister A Ramdoss has finally ruled out chikungunya as the cause of over 100 deaths in Kerala while 236 new dengue cases were reported nationwide today. The dengue death toll climbed to 4039 countrywide with Delhi alone accounting for 1101 cases.

Ramdoss has announced an assistance of Rs2 crore to each of the ten states including Kerala which are affected by the disease.

Ramdoss said after a meeting with health ministers of ten states affected by chikungunya here today. These included Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Delhi and the Andamans.

"There has been no deaths reported due to Chikungunya in the country. When I visited Kerala, I found that 70% of those who have died had some other ailments like TB, Cancer or a cardiac problem," Health and Family Welfare Minister Anbumani Ramadoss said here today.

Kerala Health Minister Srimati said she would be demanding a package of Rs 30 crore to tackle the scourge of vector-borne diseases in the state.

Meanwhile chikungunya cases continued to be reported from all parts of the country including Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Delhi.

While there were over 4000 cases in the islands, there were 21 so far in Delhi.
The total number of chikungunya cases all over the country has crossed 13 lakh.

The minister said the Andaman and Nicobar islands are the latest to be affected by chikungunya. The minister said there have been 13,26,000 suspected Chikungunya cases in the country. While 13,900 samples of suspected disease have been tested , 1,602 people were found to be afflicted.

Earlier, Indian Council for Medical Research head N K Ganguly had said that they are not ruling out Chikungunya deaths in Kerala and Ahmedabad. Kerala government had said 86 people have died due to Chikungunya.

The minister said his expert team, consisting of officers from National Institute of Communicable Diseases and National Institute of Virology would soon be submitting a report on the cause of the deaths. All deaths attributed to the virus have been scientifically probed.

The ten states which have been most affected so far include Andhra Pradesh with 77,396 cases, Karnataka with 7,58225 cases, Maharashtra with 2,63,268 cases, Tamil Nadu with 62,847 cases, Madhya Pradesh with 46,407, Gujarat with 71,077, Kerala with 43,148, Andaman with 4,462 Delhi with 194 , Rajasthan with 72 cases of fever, as per the data provided by the Natioal Vector borne disease control programme."