Thiruvananthapuram • Rat fever, not chikungunya, has been the killer fever in Kerala. Health Minister P K Sreemathy yesterday clarified in the Assembly that as opposed to popular belief, there has not been even one fatal case of chikungunya in the State since 2006. That’s the year when the new Left Government assumed office.

But 288 people died of rat fever (leptospirosis) and 18 of dengue in the State since 2006. The number of confirmed chikungunya cases last year was 909. But in 2006, there were some 70,704 suspected cases of chikungunya. Last year, it was 24,052.

Fever continues to affect the population in a big way. Some 3.5 million people were fever-stricken last year and this year so far the number has been over 900,000.

The State is facing a shortage of diphtheria vaccine and this when deaths are being reported on account of the debilitating childhood disease, mainly in Thiruvananthapuram, Thrissur and Malappuram districts. The fight against the disease has been hampered by the absence of an indigenous vaccine manufacturing facility.

Interestingly, the Health Minister’s clarification sets at rest the controversy whether chikungunya has been fatal. After the first outbreak in 2006, Sreemathy at first said “No” and changed to “Yes” when Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan said it was a killer virus. Finally, she ended up parroting the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention opinion, “chikungunya is generally non-fatal”.

Federal Health Minister Anbumani Ramdoss had also spent much time during his Kerala visit clarifying that chikungunya is non-fatal.