Steady rise in dengue cases in Gurgaon

GURGAON: The number of dengue cases reported in the district has seen an exponential rise. So far 186 dengue positive cases have been reported in Gurgaon, besides 462 of the 4,857 houses in different areas inspected by the district health officials last week were found to have mosquitoes breeding in and around them.
There are nearly 5,000 beds in the 20 hospitals in the district including 200 beds in Civil Hospital.“We are getting cases of dengue every day but we have sufficient number of beds in hospitals. Several patients have already been discharged after medication while a few have been referred to Delhi for better treatment,” said Dr Ashruddin, PMO, Gurgaon Civil Hospital.
Meanwhile residents allege that the number of dengue patients in Gurgaon is higher than claimed by the agencies concerned.
Patients going to private hospitals are incurring huge amount of money as the Civil Hospital does not even have a blood platelet separation machine which costs around Rs 18 lakh. “We have already written about this to the state government and the bidding process will begin in November. The machine is expected to be installed by January next year,” said Ashruddin.
Dr Lokesh Abrole, a physician at a private hospital in the city, said: “The number of dengue cases is much more this year compared to last year, however, the number of serious dengue patients with low blood platelet count isn’t too high.”
According to the district malaria department, 9 of the 173 houses inspected in Jacobpura were found to have mosquito larvae whereas in 118 houses in Ashok Vihar, Sheetla Colony, Khandsa , Shivaji Nagar , Shanti Nagar , Sector 51 , 52 , 53 and Sikanderpur mosquitoes were found to be breeding. In Dundaheda, Mullahedha, Carterpuri, Sirhaul and adjoining areas 227 of 344 houses inspected had mosquitoe larvae.
“We have formed six teams with five members each working towards spreading awareness at community level with the help of RWAs besides fogging and taking anti-larvae measures. Our teams are visiting the areas from where dengue cases are being reported,” said a spokesperson of the district heath department.