Vijayawada: In a strange incident, local people have started socially boycotting any village which has reported the outbreak of swine flu, fearing that the disease would spread to other villages.
For some time now, villagers have been biased towards Chinthakolla, a hamlet of Mandapaka Village in Kodur Mandala of Krishna District and have banned them from all daily activities, including restraining those villagers from using public transport like autorikshaws or buses, due to the fear of swine flu.
The surrounding villagers are avoiding talking to villagers from Chinthakolla. The milk sellers are also not entering the village. According to reports, some private schools were also shut down due to the spread of swine flu in the region. Other villagers believe that the infectious disease could spread if students from the affected village attended school.
Meanwhile, health officials announced that no cases of fever had been registered in the village after proper health check-ups were conducted in Chithakolla village. They also assured that there was no need to worry. A person named Pere Nancharaia died due to swine flu on December 5. Due to the incident, the other villagers thought that the flu may spread across the village and started avoiding them. Later, some schools announced holidays one after another in the mandal headquarters.
In some villages, they announced through a public address system to keep a distance from the Chinthakolla villagers and stopped them from entering eateries also.
Speaking to this newspaper, the District Medical and Health Officer, Dr N Sastry stated that there was no swine flu case or fever case registered from Chintakolla or nearby villages. Dr Sastry further said that they had sufficient Tamiflu tablets and were organising a mega medical camp and supplying Homeopathy pills for the prevention of swine flu. He informed that they were creating awareness among the surrounding villagers.
Speaking to DC, District Collector B Lakshmikantham said, “Villagers boycotting the people of that village is a rumour.” He said that about 35 district level officers were in the Chinthakolla hamlet to sort out all the issues and he also said that the person who died had low swine flu and had died due to a cardiac arrest.
