Dengue: Second tier & medical college hospitals asked to open fever clinics

More number of cases are being reported from Kolkata, North 24-Parganas, Howrah, Hooghly, Murshidabad, South 24-Parganas and Darjeeling

MP  |  17 Sept 2022  | KOLKATA: State Health department has directed all its second tier hospitals and medical college hospitals to open fever clinics. Meanwhile, Director of Health Services (DHS) Sidhartha Niyogi said that 566 new confirmed cases of dengue have been detected on Friday. Around 584 dengue patients have been undergoing treatment in various government hospitals. 

"Relatively more number of cases are being reported from Kolkata, North 24-Parganas, Howrah, Hooghly, Murshidabad, South 24-Parganas and Darjeeling. Some hospitals in these districts have opened Special Fever Clinic to fast track the fever cases in OPD," he added. Fever cases referred from Urban Health Centres for dengue testing can now go directly to a government labs and give samples bypassing the OPD queue. 

More than 3,000 people have been affected with dengue in the past one week in the state. Apart from people in the city, many from the rural areas are also getting affected.The number of dengue cases are higher in the district of North 24-Parganas, Howrah, Hooghly, Murshidabad, Kolkata and Jalpaiguri. 

Dengue cases have been reported recently from ward number 24,25,27,29 wards under South Dum Dum municipality. 

The civic body has already intensified dengue drive in all these wards. Medical camps have been opened at health centers in these wards where free dengue tests are being carried out. Few days ago, the dengue infected cases crossed 100 under South Dum Dum municipality. Currently, the civic body has over 60 dengue infected cases. The number of dengue cases is also higher in Howrah. Howrah Municipal Corporation has also intensified anti dengue drive in various pockets including regular spreading of larvicide to check the spread of dengue. 

According to Director of Health Services (DHS) Dr Sidhartha Niyogi, around 1,854 confirmed dengue cases were detected in the previous week. Besides urban areas, the dengue cases increased in rural areas as well. Around 977 cases were detected in urban areas while rural areas had seen 906 fresh dengue cases in the previous week, Dr Niyogi said. North 24 Parganas registered 618 cases last the previous week, Howrah 419, Hooghly 356, Murshidabad 290, Kolkata 263, Jalpaiguri 214. 

Bengal registered the highest number of dengue cases of the season in 2019 when the total number of infected patients crossed 14,700. In 2020 and 2021 the dengue cases were much on the lower side as total figures remained around 1,100 and 850 respectively. Total number of infected figures in Bengal has already touched around 10,000 marks so far. 

State health department and the Urban Development and Municipal Affairs Department issued an order saying that leave of all conservancy staff and health staff during ensuing puja holidays are to be rostered so as to ensure that vector control activities and house-to-house surveys are not hampered. Kolkata has a prevalence of dengue subtype III cases so far as it has come up in serotyping, sources in the health department said. State health department had sent around 50 samples of dengue infected patients to the NICED for serotyping. Out of 50 samples, around 35 have been found to be dengue subtype III while around 10 are dengue subtype II and 2 are dengue subtype I. 

http://www.millenniumpost.in/kolkata/dengue-second-tier-med-college-hosps-asked-to-open-fever-clinics-493203