In a harrowing incident, a 32 year old mother from Namakkal district threw her infant child into a well before jumping in herself, unable to afford the cost of treatment for her six month old son’s suspected dengue.

P Anbukodi along with her husband Periaswamy had taken their son to a private hospital in Salem on Monday morning after he fell ill. After conducting tests, the hospital authorities confirmed that the six month old was suffering from dengue and demanded Rs.5000 per day as treatment costs from the couple.

Unable to afford the said cost for treatment, the couple had returned back to their home at Belukurichi village that same night. However, Periaswamy found his wife and child missing from their home in the wee hours of the morning. Only later did he come to know his wife had taken the extreme step after some neighbours noticed the bodies in a nearby well.

Officials from the fire and rescue department retrieved the bodies and sent them to the Rasipuram government hospital for postmortem. The police have also registered a case regarding the issue and have begun investigations.

The appalling condition of the state's health measures have already claimed 27 lives in Tamil Nadu alone and over 10,000 cases of various fevers have been reported. Eventhough the government has allocated about 16 crores for mosquito eradication purposes, the state has registered more than 7000 cases of dengue so far.