With increase in temperature and a lull in rain, the spectre of dengue outbreak is looming large over the provisional capital of Uttarakhand. On Thursday, three new cases of the disease have been reported by the district health department. Earlier, on Wednesday, five new cases of the disease had been reported.
The district vector- borne diseases officer, Subhash Joshi said on Thursday that the blood samples of three patients have tested positive in the Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay ( ELISA) test on the day. Incidentally, all three patients are residents of Dehradun city. Joshi further said that one patient each was reported from Suman Nagar, Ajabpur Khurd and Kishan Vihar ( Rajpur). He accepted that three cases reported in a single day from the same city is quiet alarming. He stated that the rain activity has become a bit sluggish now after continuous downpour for days on end and things have thus turned conducive for breeding of the mosquitoes and the egg hatching. The temperature hovering around 32 degree Celsius is suitable for the growth of Aedes, responsible for dengue, he added. .
The chief medical officer (CMO) Dehradun, Dr S K Gupta said that teams of the department have been asked to visit the areas or pockets where chances of the spread of the disease are more. He claimed that the district has adequate stocks of medicines and the ELISA kits to take on any situation. The health department has set up isolation wards for the patients of the disease, he added.
Dr Gupta further said that all the medical practitioners have been directed to report the suspected cases of the disease to the district health department promptly so that the ELISA test which is confirmatory test for the disease is conducted. The CMO added that there is no need to panic. However, at the same time, he advised the people to ensure that breeding grounds inside and in the vicinity of their houses is destroyed.