Dengue: Over 30K cases reported so far this year

kolkata: Cumulative dengue infected figure in Bengal crossed 30,700 so far this year with fresh apprehension among the health experts that the figure may soon overtake 2019's dengue tally. State health department has managed to conduct nearly 5,000 dengue tests on a daily basis.

Siliguri District Hospital registered an admission of 190 dengue patients in the last 7 days while MR Bangur hospital in Kolkata saw 97 patients during this period followed by Nadia District Hospital 96, Murshidabad Medical College and Hospital 95, Barasat District Hospital 94 and Howrah District Hospital.

After analyzing recent data, the health department found that dengue infection has gone up in various districts in the past few days. North 24-Parganas, one of the worst hit districts, saw around 1,253 fresh cases in the 41st week of the year. In the 40th week the figure stood at 992 in the same district.

In the case of Kolkata, around 606 new cases were registered on 41st week while it remained at 654 in the 40th week. Around 636 new cases were detected in Howrah in the 41st week and 466 in the 40th week.

Kolkata has registered 3,406 dengue cases this year so far while North 24-Parganas have seen 5,901 cases, Howrah 3,866, Hooghly 3,016, Jalpauguri 2,410 etc.

Chief Secretary HK Dwivedi on last Saturday held a virtual meeting with all District Magistrates (DMs) and Chief Medical Officer of Health (CMOHs) in the districts instructing them to give a further impetus to the dengue control measures.

All the district administrations have been asked to be extra cautious as the infection is going up in several pockets. The officials have been asked to work in coordination with Panchayats or urban local bodies. Some pockets in the districts have been identified where more cases were found. Special attention is being given to specific blocks or municipalities of those districts that are relatively more affected now.

It may be mentioned here that the State health department already asked the district health officials to ensure that the hospitals properly assess the health conditions of dengue patients and admit the patients if they genuinely require hospital admission. It has been instructed that the hospitals should not refer any dengue patients without genuine reasons.