Dengue scare in Siliguri locality

TT, Siliguri, Oct. 23: Seven persons from two neighbouring families in the heart of Siliguri’s business district are suspected to be suffering from dengue which they are believed to have contracted locally as none of them had travelled out of town recently.

Pawan Agarwal, one of the suspected dengue patients, said five members of his family, including him, had tested positive in NS-1 examination. The disease would be confirmed after the patient undergoes the Mac Elisa test and that comes positive.

“About a fortnight ago, my sister-in-law had showed symptoms of dengue such as fever and body ache. Last week, I also fell ill with similar symptoms. I consulted a local doctor who suggested a blood test. I underwent the test and it was found that the platelet count in the blood had gone down. The doctor said he suspected that I was suffering from dengue. I was also advised to get admitted to a nursing home but I preferred to stay at home and follow his prescription,” said Agarwal.

After Agarwal, his wife, son and daughter also showed similar symptoms.

“All five of us gave our blood samples for the NS-1 examination and were tested positive. We are at home and having the medicines prescribed by doctors. We are recuperating,” said Agarwal, a businessman.

The other two suspected dengue patients, local people said, were the next-door neighbours of the Agarwals. They are Shikha and Piyush Dalmia who are siblings.

“They are also under treatment at their home. It is surprising that none of us went out of Siliguri or to any area where a dengue outbreak has been reported recently. Still, we contracted the disease. The secondary test for confirmation is yet to be conducted on our blood and if it is found we are infected by the dengue virus, it is indeed a cause of concern for neighbours as well as people of Siliguri as a whole,” said Agarwal.

Sources said that apart from the seven patients, two other persons from Khalpara are also under treatment at a private nursing home in Siliguri with suspected dengue.

Asit Biswas, the chief medical officer of health, Darjeeling, said there was no official record of any patient getting infected with dengue. “However, we have unofficial information that some people are showing symptoms of dengue and have been tested positive in NS-1 examination. We are waiting for the reports of Mac Elisa test,” he said.

Health department sources said officials up to the block level and in the Siliguri municipal area had been asked to keep tabs on patients admitted to government and private hospitals with fever and other symptoms of dengue.

Rashes on skin, headache and pain in muscles and joints are among the other symptoms of the dengue. A dengue patient might bleed from the nose and gums, and there are chances of liver enlargement and failure of circulatory system as well.

The spread of the vector-borne disease, if confirmed, will pose a fresh challenge to the health department which was struggling to battle Japanese Encephalitis in north Bengal recently.

“We have just surmounted the outbreak of JE and Acute Encephalitis Syndrome which claimed over 200 lives (in north Bengal). If there is a dengue outbreak now, it would be a fresh challenge for us,” a health official based in Siliguri said. “We hope the state health department and ministers wouldn’t sit idle this time and handle the situation properly with consistent monitoring. We saw how four health officials were made scapegoats during the JE and AES outbreak to paper over the failures of the government.”

As number of deaths from JE and AES shot up in July, the CMOHs of Jalpaiguri and Darjeeling and the superintendent and principal of North Bengal Medical College and Hospital were suspended for “not informing the state health department about the outbreak and for failure to perform their duties”.

Minister Gautam Deb will call a meeting of health and municipal officials tomorrow to discuss measures against dengue.