Dengue outbreak hits Kolkata
More than 300 people affected
Kolkata: An epidemic of a dangerous form of dengue has killed two people and affected more than 300 in Kolkata and its satellite township Salt Lake.
“The reported figures of dengue-affected persons so far total 219, mainly in Kolkata and Bidhan Nagar (Salt Lake) municipal areas,” West Bengal minister of state for health Chandima Bhatacharya said after reviewing the situation at a high-level meeting here.
In the state, especially in the town of Siliguri, another 100 people are affected taking the total to more than 300, the minister added.
Giving details of the steps taken by the health department to combat the disease, which is spreading fast since its first incidence last month, the minister said that special wards would be shortly opened in all state-run hospitals to admit patients.
She said that the Kolkata Municipal Corporation and Bidhannagar municipality had been asked to coordinate with the state health department to effectively deal with the vector-borne disease and prevent its spread.
The state government will launch an intense awareness campaign throughout the disease-prone areas and train 142 medical officers of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) to tackle the menace, as most of the confirmed cases are reported in the city.
The minister said that special clinics will be opened to attend to dengue victims along with the opening of vector-control units. The meeting was attended by principals and superintendents of state-run medical colleges and hospitals, and representatives of civic bodies of Kolkata and Bidhannagar.
However, an officer in the health department said on conditions of anonymity that the government did not take this threat seriously earlier. “We had warned the government that this time since there was little rainfall, lots of water bodies are dry and have become a breeding ground for mosquitoes. Also, there is lot of infrastructure work going on all over the city, where water stagnation is common leading to mosquito breeding and this vector borne disease.”
Officials also complain about corruption that leads to such outbreaks. “Though KMC sprays oils and other stuff all over the town, the quality of these oils are so inferior that it doesn’t show the necessary results,” said an official of the health department unwilling to be named.
