Onset of winters notwithstanding, the dreaded dengue is refusing to take back seat in Haridwar district. The health department on Thursday reported 430 new cases of dengue in Haridwar which meant that the number of cases took an alarming jump of 65 in one single day. The ever complacent officials of health department are however of the opinion that the increased figure is due to the fact that large number of samples were put for Enzyme linked Immunosorbent Assay (ElISA) test on Thursday. They claim that the samples had accumulated on account of Diwali holidays.
On Wednesday (November 02) the report of State health department suggested that 365 cases of dengue are in Haridwar.
On Thursday a day later, the department’s report indicated that number of dengue cases in district has reached 430. When contacted the state programme officer for National Vector Borne Diseases Control Programme (NVBDCP) Dr Kiran Bisht said that the cases which were reported on Thursday were old ones and all these patients have recovered from their disease now. She claimed that the disease is under control in Haridwar and other areas of the state.
In Dehradun meanwhile seven new cases of the disease were reported on Thursday. The district vector borne diseases officer J P Bahuguna said that the new cases were reported from Dharampur, Chakkuwala, Indra colony, Nehru Gram and Harrawala areas of the city. He said that 182 samples of suspected patients were put on ElISA test on the day and seven cases were found positive for the disease.
In Dehradun the disease has so far affected 1354 people in this season which is highest in recent years. like senior officers of department Bahuguna also claimed that the disease is on wane in the city on account of cold weather.
He said that the number of cases would soon get down to zero as the temperature is decreasing and the virus of disease fails to infect people when the temperature is down.
The officer further informed that the smoke and gases emanated from crackers during diwali also acted as deterrent for mosquito and large numbers of them have died due to them. he added that gases like Sulphur di oxide and Nitrous oxide are released from burning of the crackers, these gases are harmful for humans but for mosquitoes such gases are fatal.