An almost three-fold increase in dengue cases in Lucknow during August compared to the previous month has once again highlighted the need for staying alert to the ever-looming threat of dengue, malaria, chikungunya and other mosquito-borne diseases during monsoons.
Six more people in Lucknow tested positive for dengue on Friday, the highest in a day “since the onset of monsoon this year,” according to Times of India (TOI), with the abrupt spike being attributed to alleged complacency of authorities.
Those affected include the son of state minister Brijesh Pathak who himself was affected by the mosquito-borne disease last year.
The blood test report of Pathak’s 14-year-old son confirmed dengue on Friday after the teenager was admitted to SPM Civil hospital on Thursday with high fever and other symptoms associated with the disease.
A 29-year-old woman from Chinhat was also undergoing treatment at the SPM Civil Hospital after she tested positive for dengue. Four other dengue-affected patients, aged between 20 and 35, are recovering at their homes after being declared out of danger, TOI quoted officials as saying.
The number of dengue positive cases in the city has now reached 22 since July.
TOI reported earlier this week that joint anti-larvae and fogging drives in July had helped the district health department and Lucknow
Municipal Corporation(LMC) to keep the mosquito menace under check. However, the alleged lack of a coordinated effort in August led to detection of 14 dengue positive cases in the month, compared to eight in July.
This prompted authorities to call a meeting wherein it was decided to increase the number of teams formed to carry out anti-mosquito drives across the city from 50 to 110 or one each for all the LMC wards.
Besides, all government hospitals have been directed to keep beds reserved for dengue patients, additional chief medical officer Dr D K Bajpai said.
The LMC is also planning to carry out extensive fogging in the city in view of the increased dengue threat.
In Bareilly, the cases of 'deadly' plasmodium falciparum (PF) malaria shot up to nearly 550 from July 21 to August 20 as against 157 cases from January 1 to July 20 this year.
Nearly 5,600 people also tested positive for the milder Plasmodium vivax (PV) malaria in the past one month, taking the number of cases from January 1 to August 20 to 18,400.
Comments
0 comment