Prepare for fever season, say docs

In what might seem like a positive trend, as compared to a total of 21,200 fever cases reported in Trichy district in 2017, only 3,202 such cases have been reported so far. But health experts warned that though statistics show fever cases to be declining this year, the upward trend starts only in the month of September and have asked the general public to follow certain practices so that they could possibly prevent contracting fever.

State president of Indian Academy of Paediatrics (IAP) Dr Sunil Srinivasan said that when it comes to seasonal fever, one wouldn’t be able to predict if there’s a positive or negative trend and that climate changes would always mean that there’s a breakout of viral fever. "It’s only from the month of September to December, there would be a significant increase in people contracting fever," the doctor said.

He added that when it comes to children suffering from fever, almost 95% are caused due to viral infections, which include flu, and only around 5% would constitute of bacterial infections like typhoid and throat infection. "The prevalence of viral fever tends to increase right when the rain begins. Drink only boiled water and make sure that hands are meticulously washed to stay away from fever," he said.

On the other hand, ENT specialist Dr T Aruleeswaran said that if water contamination during rainy season is curbed, and proper functioning of drainage system is ensured, fever cases this year might in fact be less compared to last year. "Last year, so many cases of fever, including dengue were reported. But dengue has been curbed substantially this year and if water stagnation is avoided, viral fever and bacterial fever too could see a marginal decline this year," he added.

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