‘Two persons have died of encephalitis since Saturday, while six new admissions have been made with suspected infection,’ West Bengal Health Services director Biswaranjan Satpathy, who is camping in North Bengal, said. The state government, however, maintained that it has not escalated into an epidemic.
‘As of now, 35 persons have been admitted to the North Bengal Medical College (NBMC) with the disease,’ Satpathy said. He said that provisions had been made at the sub-divisional and block level hospitals in north Bengal to deal with the situation. ‘Fever clinics have been opened in several sub-divisional and block-level hospitals, but no admission has been reported from these so far,’ he said.
Municipalities and other local bodies in the seven affected districts of north Bengal have taken up a huge cleanliness drive and fogging activities regularly to control the disease. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee has already suspended three senior health department officials in north Bengal for not providing information on the situation at the right time.
In Jalpaiguri, the minister of state for health, Chandrima Bhattacharya, said that no ‘emergency report’ on encephalitis had reached the head office of the health and family welfare department though regular reports had come. ‘The state government started working on a war footing after getting the report. The situation has been controlled before it reached epidemic form,’ she said.
‘I came to know about the situation after a woman journalist informed me here on 15 July when I was here,’ Bhattacharya told reporters after a review meeting on the situation.
‘As of now, 35 persons have been admitted to the North Bengal Medical College (NBMC) with the disease,’ Satpathy said. He said that provisions had been made at the sub-divisional and block level hospitals in north Bengal to deal with the situation. ‘Fever clinics have been opened in several sub-divisional and block-level hospitals, but no admission has been reported from these so far,’ he said.
Municipalities and other local bodies in the seven affected districts of north Bengal have taken up a huge cleanliness drive and fogging activities regularly to control the disease. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee has already suspended three senior health department officials in north Bengal for not providing information on the situation at the right time.
In Jalpaiguri, the minister of state for health, Chandrima Bhattacharya, said that no ‘emergency report’ on encephalitis had reached the head office of the health and family welfare department though regular reports had come. ‘The state government started working on a war footing after getting the report. The situation has been controlled before it reached epidemic form,’ she said.
‘I came to know about the situation after a woman journalist informed me here on 15 July when I was here,’ Bhattacharya told reporters after a review meeting on the situation.