Chikungunya disease kills 96 in India's Kerala state

Oct 8, 2006, 13:50 GMT

New Delhi - A total of 96 people have died of the mosquito-bourne Chikungunya disease in India's southern Kerala state, news reports said Sunday.

Five more deaths were reported Saturday from the worst-hit Alappuzha district, a prime tourism destination for its backwaters, the Hindustan Times newspaper reported.

'Chikungunya has come back to Kerala after 30 years,' PA Joshi, director of the National Vector Control Programme, was quoted as saying. The outbreak of the viral disease was first detected in the state in July.

More than 100,000 people were reported to have been affected in Kerala, most of them in Alappuzha district, federal Health Ministry officials said.

Cases of chikungunya had also been reported from national capital Delhi, the northern state of Rajasthan and eastern West Bengal.

Meanwhile, the current outbreak of dengue, another mosquito-bourne disease, spread across the country with over 3,000 cases reported from 12 of India's 29 states.

More than 45 people have died of dengue so far, 21 of them in Delhi alone.

More than 800 patients with symptoms of the disease have been admitted to Delhi hospitals and the local government has appealed for donations of blood.

Both chikungunya and dengue are marked by high fever, rashes and joint pains. Extreme cases of dengue require blood transfusion.

Both diseases are carried by the Aedes aegypti mosquito and usually occur in India after the monsoon rains June to September.

Health officials said the diseases peak in October, and warned that the worst may not be over yet.