Chikungunya Virus Hospitalises Finance Minister

The Finance Minister, Gasim Ibrahim, was hospitalised on Thursday morning after contracting what is thought to be the Chikungunya virus.

Gasim was reportedly rushed to ADK Hospital at around 2:30am suffering high fever, one of the symptoms of the potentially deadly virus.

The virus has spread across the Maldives like wildfire in the past two weeks, claiming a number of lives.

Hospitals and health post are reportedly packed with patients who have been diagnosed with the fever. One such hospital, IGMH, in Male’, is so full that it is not admitting any more patients.

Health experts say the fever is being spread through mosquitoes and that heavy rains over the last couple of months have increased the number of those infected.

As a result, the Department of Public Health is now calling on the public to drain every possible entity that harbours standing water, as they are favourable for mosquito breeding.

An official from the department said that as of December 19, 135 Maldivians had been suspected of being infected with Chikungunya, which also recently broke out in both India and Sri Lanka.

Gasim’s ill heath temporarily postponed the debate over the 2007 budget in Thursday’s session of the People’s Majlis.

Speaker Ahmed Zahir told parliamentarians that Gasim was unable to attend the session because he is “suffering from a fever… which seems to be Chikungunya.”

State minister Abdulla Jihaadh stood in for Gasim during the debate.

Gasim is the Maldives’ most powerful oligarch, controlling a billion-dollar business empire believed to employ some 10 percent of the country’s workforce.

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