21 dengue cases in Doon district

DEHRADUN: The state health department has confirmed the presence of 21 dengue cases in Dehradun district and on Tuesday, eight more suspected cases were reported. The department has conducted 300 Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) tests out of which 21 were found positive. In 1,400 Rapid Strep Test, 50 samples have come positive in the last one-and-a-half months.
Doctors say if the ELISA test comes positive, dengue is confirmed, but result of RAPID is not taken as confirmed because sometimes, it can also be an indication of typhoid or some other viral infection. The department will now conduct ELISA test on all the 50 RAPID positive cases.
Dengue cases tend to escalates in August end, September and October and this year, the health department has formed a 10-member taskforce at the district level to reduce the incidence of dengue and bringing down the fatality rate.
Interestingly, till date, the health department has never sent samples of dengue serum to Pune-based lab for taking virus Isolation action, under which insecticide is sprayed depending on the virus identified at the lab to stop the multiplication of vector. Dengue has four types of virus D1, D2, D3 and D4. But this year, the department is mulling over sending the dengue serum for the first time to Pune to ensure that the disease does not spread.
Seeing the increased number of cases, the administration has geared up to the handle the outbreak this year. “We have formed a 10-member district level taskforce to monitor the sanitation condition in the city. The taskforce will keep a check on prevailing cases and provide medicines and equipment to all the government and private hospitals to control the situation,” said Dehradun CMO SP Agrawal.
In Dehradun district, dengue reports have come in from Vasant Vihar, Nehru colony, Kalidas Marg, Rispana Nagar, Doiwala, Raiwala and Rishikesh. In 2014, the city reported 849 dengue cases and the outbreak was in Bhagat Singh Colony, Sanjay Colony, Puran Basti, Brahamanwala and Mehuwala.
Health department officials said the virus is coming from outside the district. TOI has learnt that three case of dengue were identified among ITBP force personnel who had travelled from Delhi and surprisingly, they had reported in the hospital that their entire unit is inflicted by dengue in Delhi.
The major challenge for the department is to save people who are bitten twice by female anopheles. “The mortality rate is higher among the patients who are struck twice by the dengue vector. The virus has no vaccination or treatment so we are trying to spread awareness at grassroot level starting from gram panchayats to district administration. In the latest action, we have facilitated the hospitals and locals by giving them special kits as per the latest revised World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines on controlling vector-borne diseases,” said Jagdish Bahuguna, district vector-borne disease office, Dehradun.
The Dehradun Municipal Corporation has also issued an alert. DMC commissioner Nitin Bhadouria said, “We are ensuring that water stagnancy doesn’t happen in inflicted areas. The sanitation team is being sent on on regular cleaning drives so that dengue mosquito doesn’t breed. The sanitation staff have been directed to frequently spray insecticide and carry out fogging. Locals at this point need to stay away from stagnant pool of water and inform the corporation if any such sight is observed.”
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Story Folder Log 25-08-2015 19:28 The package "25uk dengue TOIDelhiBS 26-08-2015 Dehradun/1 - City DEHP2 " has been created. 25-08-2015 18:56 Story folder "25uk dengue" has been created. 25-08-2015 18:56 The planning date has been set to 25-08-2015.