Dengue spike: North 24-Parganas, Howrah see highest infection rate

kolkata: At a time when the number of dengue cases in Bengal has already crossed the 15,000-mark, North 24-Parganas and Howrah have become a major cause of concern for the Health department. The infection rate is higher in these two districts. North 24-Parganas has already registered more than 2,640 dengue cases so far, while Howrah has seen around 2,200 cases followed by Jalpaiguri 1,600 and Hooghly 1,568. Kolkata has so far registered around 1,525 cases followed by Murshidabad, which has seen around 1,300 dengue cases so far.

As the districts like North 24-Parganas and Howrah have a maximum number of dengue cases, the health officials held a series of meetings with the district's administrative officials from the two districts and issued necessary directives as to how to take preventive measures. Various pockets in both the districts have been affected.

Meanwhile, Chief Secretary HK Dwivedi held a virtual meeting on Friday with all the DMs and Chief Medical Officer of Health (CMOHs) in the districts to review the dengue situation. Director of Health Services (DHS), Sidhartha Niyogi, said that a team of a senior officer of Public Health, specialist of Community Medicine and State Entomologist had been sent to North Bengal on Friday to supervise the dengue situation. Around 677 new confirmed cases have been detected on Friday. Around 630 patients have been admitted to government hospitals, Dr Niyogi added.

Last week, the total infected figure stood at around 11,000. State Health officials apprehended that cases may be up to 13,000 but the figure has already crossed 15,000-mark. Health officials now suspect that dengue cases may be found in the state till the early part of November.

"In past one week, the number of infected cases has gone up in various districts at an alarming rate. Over 4,000 people were affected with dengue in the state in the past one week. North 24-Parganas reports the highest number of dengue cases. Bidhannagar and South Dum Dum municipality areas are among the worst hit areas," an official said.

Experts have already warned that a delay in dengue tests is complicating the situation further ahead of Puja. They have pointed out that many patients are going for dengue tests after suffering from high fever for 5-6 days. As many as 16 people have so far died of dengue in the state.

Health officials held a meeting at Srirampur on Wednesday to review the dengue control and treatment activities in the area. The number of dengue beds increased and 24 hour lab service started in Srirampur SDH and Uttarpara SGH. Health officials have already held meetings with the district officials of North 24-Parganas to take stock of the dengue situation in Bidhannagar, South Dum Dum and also in the rural areas as well. Health department has already issued directives saying that all symptomatic cases are to be tested for dengue and malaria through confirmatory tests like Elisa and NSI.