Health officials on alert after rise in fever cases in Kerala

Thiruvananthapuram: Seeing the spike in fever as well as infectious diseases like dengue and leptospirosis the health department has issued an alert to district health administrations asking them to closely monitor the trend of the illnesses.

The state has been reporting an average of 10 thousand fever cases daily after the intermittent rains in several districts.

Apart from normal viral infections, there has been a rise in dengue and leptospirosis cases as well.

In June, the state reported a spike in dengue cases compared to the previous months registering 877 cases till now. In May, April, and March the state had reported 530, 127, and 269 cases, respectively.

This year alone, a total of 2,529 dengue cases and six deaths have been reported in the state. The worst affected district is Ernakulam, which reported 204 cases this month, followed by Kollam with 180 cases, Thrissur (68 cases), Thiruvananthapuram (60 cases) and Alappuzha (57 cases).

As many as 65 cases of leptospirosis and three deaths have also been reported this month. This year, a total of 500 leptospirosis cases have been reported while 27 people have died of the disease. Apart from these infections, cases of chickenpox, measles, and typhoid are also continuing to rise in the state. Malappuram reported 1,473 fever cases on Saturday, followed by Kozhikode with 1,201 cases and Thiruvananthapuram with 1,170 cases.

The health department has asked district health administrations to immediately report if contagious fever spread rapidly in their respective regions. The district medical officers are ensuring that all major hospitals have fever clinics. If there is an emergency, the hospitals have been asked to set up special wards and also ICUs. The local bodies have also been told to support ward-level monitoring to check disease outbreaks.