Mosquito-borne diseases hit India

By Nirmala George\nThe Associated Press \nNEW DELHI -- Health officials struggled Wednesday to cope with outbreaks of mosquito-borne diseases in northern and southern India that have killed at least 87 people and overwhelmed hospitals and clinics.\nAt New Delhi's All India Institute of Medical Sciences, India's premier state-run hospital, a makeshift ward was set up in a hallway to deal with hundreds of dengue fever patients, some of whom were forced to hold intravenous drip bags above their heads because of a lack of equipment.\nThe dengue outbreak began in late August, and the death toll in New Delhi and surrounding areas of northern India rose to 16 Wednesday when a patient at the institute died.\nThe situation was even worse in the southern state of Kerala, where 71 people have died in the past month from another mosquito-borne disease, a rare viral fever known as chikungunya, said state Health Minister P. K. Sreemathi.\nIn the hardest-hit district of the state, Alappuzha, some 40,000 people had symptoms of the disease, such as high fevers and severe joint pain, and thousands had been hospitalized, said the area's chief medical officer, K. Velayudhan.\nAcross the state, local authorities were overwhelmed by the outbreak, and Sreemathi said a World Health Organization team was to arrive Thursday.\nThe outbreaks of dengue in the north and chikungunya in the south come as the annual monsoon tapers off across much of the subcontinent, leaving behind countless small pools and puddles of dirty, stagnant water where infectious mosquitoes breed.\nA dengue outbreak is an annual post-monsoon occurrence in parts of northern India. This year's has been particularly widespread, with more than 400 cases, compared to last year's 217 infections.\nFemale mosquitoes transmit the disease, and symptoms include high fever, joint pain, headache and vomiting. \nIt is fatal in rare cases. The annual outbreak normally dies off with the end of the mosquito breeding period in November.\nAuthorities in New Delhi were pressing home and business owners to spray their properties with insecticides, but such efforts have only begun in recent days, and it remained unclear what, if any, impact was being made. There was also talk of fines being levied, but no such moves had been reported.\nFurther complicating matters was a shortage of staff at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, where one doctor has died from dengue and 19 other physicians and medical students had fallen ill with the disease.\nAuthorities in the capital were, however, urging residents to remain clam. Federal Health Minister Yoganand Shastri told reporters Tuesday that the disease had not yet become epidemic.