Send Beliaghata ID Hospital samples to NICED: Health dept

With a sudden rise in dengue cases in several districts, the state Health department has issued a directive saying that the samples which are being sent to Beliaghata ID Hospital must be sent to the National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases (NICED) to know which types of viruses are mostly affecting the patients and their prevalence.

According to the Health department’s guidelines, if a patient is down with a 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 the malaria parasite exists in the blood sample. If immunity is down, a patient can be affected by dengue or malaria. The experts are suggesting that tests must be carried out if a recovered patient complains about fever three weeks after his/her recovery. 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 etc.

Chief Secretary H K Dwivedi during a virtual meeting with the District Magistrates (DMs) on Friday issued necessary directives to check the spread of dengue.

The state government has decided to conduct house-to-house mosquito larva surveys till December. The government has already issued necessary directives to various stakeholders who are involved in processes to check the spread. Drones will be used to detect mosquito larvae in various civic body areas, sources said.

Around 160 state-run health centres are conducting blood tests free of cost. Around 9,000 doctors and para-medical staff have been trained in case management of dengue patients. Separate fever clinics, on a 24x7 basis, have been started at the hospitals having high case load.

The state Health department has already directed the Chief Medical Officer of Health (CMoHs) in the districts to ensure that fever clinics are open in the district hospitals even on holidays. All hospitals have been kept ready for any surge in the admission of dengue patients.