66-year-old woman dies of dengue in Nadia district

Kolkata: A 66-year-old woman, a resident of Ranaghat in Nadia, reportedly died of dengue at the Kalyani Jawaharlal Nehru Medical Hospital, on Thursday. The patient was admitted to the hospital with a fever. A dengue test was done on her and the report came positive. She had other comorbidity factors as well.

The experts are suggesting that tests must be carried out if a recovered patient complains about fever three weeks after his/her recovery. State health department’s guidelines said if a patient is down with fever for one day, it can be determined whether he/she is affected only by conducting NS1 (non structural protein) test.

If a patient is affected with fever for 2-7 days, blood tests will confirm if malaria parasite exists in the blood sample. If immunity is down, a patient can be affected with dengue or malaria. Chief Secretary H K Dwivedi, during a recent virtual meeting with the district magistrates, issued necessary directives to check the spread of dengue.

Besides dengue, malaria-infected cases are also on the rise across the state. Dengue cases are on the rise in the districts like North 24-Parganas, Nadia, South 24-Parganas, East Burdwan. The state government has decided to conduct house-to-house mosquito larva surveys till December. The government has already issued directives to various stakeholders who are involved in processes to check the spread.