The provincial State capital is under the grip of dengue outburst. On Wednesday, 24 new cases of the disease were reported.
The surfacing of such a large number of new cases of dengue is a clear indication that the dreaded disease is now on a verge of an epidemic. This situation could become a headache for the health department as the people of the State capital are already under an onslaught of Swine flu. Almost all of the cases of the disease reported on the day are young patients.
To make things tough for the health authorities the dengue outburst is occurring at a time when the Asha workers are on a strike.
The District in-charge of Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP), Dr Puneet Chandra said 118 cases have been so far been reported positive for the dengue this year, out of which 57 are from Dehradun, 45 from Haridwar district, two from Tehri, one Chamoli and Rudraprayag while 12 are residents of neighbouring districts of Uttar Pradesh.
The department has collected samples of 3,517 patients this year out of which 118 patients have been found positive in Enzyme linked Immunosorbent Assay (ElISA) which is the confirmatory test for the disease.
Meanwhile, the unseasonal Swine flu is also continuing to pose a challenge to health department. On Wednesday, four new cases of the disease were reported by health department. With them the number of people affected by dreaded H1N1 virus this season has reached to 162.
Dr Chandra said 152 cases of swine flu have been found positive by the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) in this year. He said that 26 patients suspected to be suffering from the disease are at present undergoing treatment in different hospitals of Dehradun. The department has sent samples of 105 suspected patients to the NCDC for test of H1N1 this month but reports of 19 are yet to arrive. So far 19 patients have succumbed to swine flu so far out of which eleven are from Dehradun.