The State health department avers to have taken necessary measures to tackle the spread of dengue in the State while consistently claiming that the disease is under control. However, one is likely to doubt the veracity of such claims when department officials state they are unaware of the ruling party’s chief in Uttarakhand -- Kishore Upadhyay’s suffering from dengue and that too in a state afflicted with a 'VIP culture'. Upadhyay is not the lone case there are thousands of people in state capital that had dengue recently or are suffering from the disease but a department suffering from classical Ostrich syndrome is adamant on maintaining its stance of not acknowledging these as cases of dengue affected persons.
For dengue, the health department has adopted a stand that it will consider only those cases as suffering from Dengue that are found positive in the Enzyme linked Immunosorbent Assay (ElISA) test conducted in an authorized laboratory. In the state capital only the ElISA reports from the labs of Associated hospital of GDMC and Himalayan Institute Hospital Trust (HIHT) are officially recognised by the department.
In case of the Pradesh Congress Committee president Upadhyay, the test for dengue was done at a prominent private lab of the city and the result was found positive after which the leader was admitted in a private hospital. Incidentally in the hospital one youth who was occupying the nearby bed of Upadhyay died; the incident shook the PCC president who in an emotional appeal to all political parties asked to shun differences and tackle dengue.
The Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of Dehradun, Dr Y S Thapliyal said that no sample of state PCC President was taken for ElISA test; hence his illness cannot be termed as dengue. Expressing shock at the attitude of health department, the Chief Spokesman of PCC, Mathura Dutt Joshi said that it shows complete lack of sensitivity on part of the department. “If they (health department officials) are treating the state congress chief in such a manner then the condition of a common citizen could well be understood,’’ he said.
To add to this confusion of ElISA and rapid tests and the system of sampling the district health department is alleged to have been sitting over thousands of blood samples dispatched by the private hospitals. The Senior Public Relations Officer (PRO) of Mahant Indiresh hospital, Bhupendra Raturi said that the reports of samples sent by his hospital to the department for ElISA tests are having a pendency of more than one month. He categorically stated that more than 1500 people who were found positive for the disease in rapid test had undergone treatment from the MI hospital till now ever since the outbreak of the disease was reported in state capital in month of July.
Apart from juggling of data in name of ElISA tests the experts are also blaming the department of hiding the actual number of deaths due to dengue in the state capital. The department claims that only two people have died from the disease in the current season while those in knowledge of the disease and functioning of health department claim that at least a dozen people have succumbed to death due to the disease.