Dengue is spreading its wings in provisional state capital Dehradun. On Tuesday, four new cases of the vector borne disease were reported by the district health authorities. With these cases, the number of patients affected by dengue this season has increased to 11. Eight patients out of 11 reported cases are the residents of Dehradun. On Monday also the department had reported three cases of the disease. The virus of the dengue is said to be more active in Raipur road and Adhoiwala areas of the city. All the four patients of the disease reported on Tuesday are the residents of these two localities. Jolted into action by sudden eruption of the disease, the district heath department is concentrating its activities in these areas.
The Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of Dehradun, Dr S K Gupta said that the department is on alert mode on the incidences of the disease. He said that the department has earmarked 100 areas in city and nearby areas which have past history of occurrence of the disease. The department has decided to undertake extensive fogging and spray of insecticides in these areas. The CMO added that the teams of the health departments are coordinating with the Municipal Corporation of Dehradun (MCD) to undertake fogging and other activities.
The District Vector Borne Diseases officer, Subhash Joshi said a team of health department has visited the houses of the affected patients and not found symptoms of the disease in their family members. He said that one patient of the disease is currently undergoing treatment at Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya hospital while remaining patients have been discharged from the hospitals.
Joshi informed that that people should ensure that the breeding places of mosquitoes inside their homes and vicinity are destroyed. He added that Aedes mosquitoes - the vector of dengue- are capable to lay their eggs in one spoonful of water so the pots, vases, water bottles and coolers should be decanted regularly. The officer said that the Aedes mosquito bites during day time so it is advisable that everyone should wear full sleeve clothes to reduce exposure of their body for the mosquito to bite.
The symptoms of Dengue are persistently high fever, rashes, headache and pain in the joints. In the acute cases the platelets number decrease drastically which could prove fatal for the patient. The Tiger mosquito (called due to the characteristic stripes on its body) is responsible for transmitting the virus from one person to another.
Rainy season is most conducive for rapid growth of Tiger mosquito which can lay about 1200 eggs at a time and 400 -500 larvae can emerge from these eggs that take a week’s time to hatch. The mosquito infected with virus thus can increase its number exponentially infecting large number of people in a short span of time.