THIRUVANANTHAPURAM (India), July 16: India's southern coastal Kerala state is reeling from an outbreak of mosquito-borne Chikungunya viral fever infections that have claimed 193 lives, a minister said on Monday.

Health minister P.K. Sreemathy said that the inland plantation districts of Pathanamthitta and Kottayam were the worst affected, accounting for 161 of the 193 deaths this year.

“We have organised 2,500 medical camps in the state. This is an unusual situation that needs multiple strategies to defuse the crisis,” she said.

The minister said the situation, which erupted with the arrival of annual monsoon rains in June, was improving, citing a decline in the number of cases reported in recent weeks.

Kerala health experts blamed abysmal efforts to clean up mosquito breeding areas and an ineffective health system for the high number of deaths.—AFP