Series of deaths among infants of some of the remote hamlets of Bangarupalem mandal during the last one and half month has brought an unhappy atmosphere in the rural side. The official figure of the infants’ deaths since one and half months stood at nine. Though the medical officials say that all the casualties were due to non-dengue reasons, they confirm the prevalence of viral fevers in the predominantly backward mandal.
Latest, death of a 6-year-old girl occurred at Vepanapalle village on November 20 and it came to the notice of medical officials on Wednesday.
“Our team went to the village today. We are not able to see any diagnosis reports as the family was away after performing the funeral rites of the baby,” Dr. Gayatri, medical officer of Public Health Centre at Thumbakuppam said.
Of the seven casualties in October, the children were aged 0-5 and the reasons were due to low weight, seizures and pneumonia. The cases were reported from GK Manchi, Bodubandla, Maha Samudram, and Mangalampalle villages.
A child of five years was reported killed in a road mishap recently, the official said.
Though officials emphasize that there was no any death due to dengue, the prevalence of viral fevers in several hamlets, including Kurmaipalle, Vepanapalle, Eguva Bandarlapalle, Srinivasa Puram, Kanthala Chenu and Musallamadugu, has led to a tense situation among residents, mistaking the febrile illness due to dengue.
As some villages are very remote even lacking transport facilities, some cases of typhoid rush to hospitals after much neglect and get directed to referral hospitals. This phenomenon is also wrongly highlighted as dengue cases. District Surveillance Officer (Infectious diseases) Annareddy Sudarsan said that some cases such as seizures and pneumonia would suffer from fevers, which in turn making the family members of the victims presume the reason to be dengue.
‘Thorough monitoring’
“We are thoroughly monitoring the situation of febrile illnesses at the rural side. The people are repeatedly told to approach government hospitals and avoid private clinics when they experienced signs of fever,” he said.
The Rural Organisation for Poverty Eradication Services (ROPES), a Bangarupalem-based NGO, has arranged tom-tom in about 32 villages, prone to febrile illnesses, seeking them to approach government hospitals, besides arranging them transport to district headquarters hospital at Chittoor, area hospital at Bangarupalem, and PHC at Thumbakuppam.
