Who says ChikunGunya is not fatal?

This was the outskirts of Chennai.
Life was as usual. until...

The grandma was sick...
Normally healthy, she is known to have high fever twice a year, which would be curable by Over The Counter medicines, no doctor visit required...she is known to have arthritis for the past X years, but it was not too painful;
Day 1. She is sick...she can eat, talk a bit, but was very fatigued...

Day 2. Her Fever got somewhat worse and the arthritis, even worse...joint pain or 'Mootu Vali' was pre-dominant in all the joints... she was too weak...Iodex and Icy Hot were applied, massages given; she could be given soup...some local pharmacy OTC medication was given; ChikunGunya was suspected and all relatives took some prevention medicines.

2 more days were similar...she threw up...
On the 3rd and 4th days, additional symptoms originated...she could not identify any one, she would stare at a window imagining and talking of a TV serial...
( she might have undergone something like Cerebral Paralysis (CP) which was due to lack of oxygen).

One more day passed like this with no improvement. The alarmed relatives realised that they have to rush her to a hospital, give an IV and give an emergency treatment.
As the situaion would have it, none of the hospitals or doctors they reached out to were prepared to stop by or send an ambulance to this remote bunglow, or gave up since the 'paati' was 'old enough'. (Isn't that sickening?)

One whole day was wasted; the daughter and in-law tried all they could but to no avail...the son immediately collected his passport and visa and started to India from the Middle East...
The next morning (6th day), they were somehow lucky to get her admitted in a hospital and an ambulance took her out...she was in the ICU, she realised some pain after O2 was given; she could talk sensibly once in a while...there were mixed signals of hope.
Late that night, she passed away.

All the news sites and all the Government issued pamphlets say that 'ChikunGunya' or 'Chicken Guinea' (or many other spellings for - G-Ui-N-Ea) is not fatal. But is it a fact?

May not be for the aged and the old who are left untreated...
All they need is a simple trigger that would suppress the immunity, thus invalidating organ by organ...and this ChikunGunya virus is one of them.
Not all of us are physicians, and we need to be aware of when to consult a doctor, when is a situation in its last state of control.
Keep your parents, elders, near and dear ones informed about the ill-effects of CG in the aged.

Tell them they need to rush an elder, who is affected by CG, to the hospital or emergency care, or to a physician at the minimum if:
0. The fever persists with joint ache
1. They realise that their functionality fails or drops day by day,
2. If they seem to talk insensibly (Anathal, Pinathal, commonly used terms for which the hidden meaning may be "Lack of Oxygen" )
3. they have trouble identifying others and/or are unconscious
- Make sure that they have the numbers of all call-taxi services or auto-drivers in their locality if they stay in remote neighbourhoods or stay away from their relatives.

The older are more susceptible to the virus. They have a right to live up to the number of years they were stipulated on this earth. Lack of awareness (in others) should not be a reason for the dear to depart. Let us be aware and act, rather than feeling guilty in the future.

Information about, Symptoms, Precautions are given in:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chikungunya

During and after this episode, almost all the family members were affected by CG. It has become such a joke amongst the patients in the hospitals. "Oh!!! Ungalukkum CGaa? Ok!Ok!". You call then up casually and they say: "Chikunu irukaravangala K(G)uniya vaikudhu paa".

This illness has taken a toll in AP, Karnataka, TN, MP and is spreading.
When I called up my parents in Coimbatore, asking them to be cautious, they tell me, "Priya, All is taken care of! There are some homeopathy medicines that prevent this (Or, is it?). And, the Government has sprayed the prevention medicine on all the water tanks".

Ohh My God!!! No prevention measures were asked to be followed by residents while they sprayed???
They did not know what medicine has been sprayed.
I remember the pungent ones that were sprayed on the streets when I was a school-goer, which could suffocate the whole neighbourhood for the day.
Also I remembered the DDT which was banned by the US Govt in 1972 for causing cancer in humans and birth defects in children (who were still in wombs), was used for ariel spraying till the late 1990s in cashew plantations in Kerala, leading to all those ill-effects in residents and children to come.
Awareness... When? Where? How? What are we doing about it?

http://www.pan-uk.org/pestnews/pn47/pn47p6.htm