Thursday, August 11 2005 13:01 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: Altogether 26 persons died in the city due to fever in the wake of recent deluge, in the last two days and about 250 others have contracted high fever during the same period. To deal with this situation, the Chief Secretary of Maharashtra summoned a high-level meeting of health officials today (August 11, 2005) to take precautionary measures.

Of the 26 deaths, 14 persons died yesterday (August 10, 2005) after they were admitted to various city hospitals with high fever, state health officials said.

Senior officials of the State Health Directorate, Health Secretary and officers of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) met at Mantralaya today (August 11, 2005) to review the situation.

The meeting will also draw new strategies, taking into account that number of cases of leptospirosis during August was always on the rise in the last three years and this year with the floods the cases of Leptospirosis might go up," Dr J V Telang, BMC Health Executive, said.

Meanwhile, official sources said, cases of Diarrhoea have reduced while that of Ledptospirosis, Dengue, Malaria, Typhoid and Viral are going up.

The 250 persons admitted to various hospitals in the city following complaints of high fever could be suffering from Typhoid, Malaria, Leptospirosis and the health officials are looking into the causes, the sources said.

However, the health officials said these cases could be treated and they have enough stock of antibiotics.

Since July 26, 2005, the metropolis registered 30 confirmed cases of leptospirosis, 10 dengue, 352 cases of hepatitis and 596 cases of malaria, the State Health Directorate said.

During the same period, the number of cases of fever in Mumbai was 46075 while that of diarrhoea / vomiting was 22787.

All of them are under treatment, state officials said.

Leptospirosis is not communicable and spreads through rodent's urine in stagnant water bodies. It affects people with some form of wounds in their limbs when it comes in contact with water bodies, doctors said.