CHERTHALA, Kerala, (IPS/IFEJ) - Lulled by social indices that compare with the developed world's and tourist brochures that gush over 'God's Own Country', the deaths of 125 people from an outbreak of the mosquito-borne disease, chikungunya, has come as a reality check for people in this southern state.
Authorities and experts, starting with federal health minister Anbumani Ramadoss, were quick to point out that the outbreak, which raged through September and October, was linked to insanitary conditions fostered by creeping environmental degradation in Kerala, known for its lush, spice-growing hills, riverine valleys and serene backwaters that empty into the Arabian sea.
Nowhere did the epidemic strike harder than in the state's prime tourist destination of Alappuzha district, whose population of two million people suddenly found suddenly itself at the mercy of aedes aegypti mosquito and the virus it carried.
As tens of thousands of people went down with fever, joint pains, nausea and diarrhoea, the typical symptoms, the state health delivery system found itself overwhelmed. By Oct. 12, officials had admitted that at least 125 deaths were attributable to chikungunya, with the majority of casualties reported from Alappuzha's sub-district of Cherthala.
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