Four new patients of dengue were reported by the District Health Department in the provisional State Capital on Tuesday. To add to the woes of the residents of the city, one more case of swine flu was reported on the same day.
On Tuesday blood sample of a 21-year-old man, a resident of Karanpur in Dalanwala, a 10-year-old boy of laljiwala Kabadi basti, a 58-year-old man of Dobhalwala and a 41-year-old female of Indra Colony Chukhuwala were reported positive for dengue by the district health department.
A total of 187 cases of dengue have so far been reported in this season. The outburst of the disease took place in month of September where 148 cases of the disease were reported.
“The actual number of the dengue affected persons in the city is much more than the official figure. The health department officials in absence of manpower and strike of Asha workers have virtually stopped anti-dengue campaign. Though the State Government has imposed epidemic act in the State and bounded the private hospitals to inform the district health officials suspected cases of the disease but in absence of strict monitoring the private hospitals are not reporting the cases,’’ admitted an officer of health department on condition of anonymity.
The District in-charge of Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP), Dr Puneet Chandra said 187 cases have been so far been reported positive for the dengue this year, out of which 103 are from Dehradun, 64 from Haridwar district, three from Tehri, two from Rudraprayag and one from Chamoli while 18 are residents of neighbouring districts of Uttar Pradesh. The department has collected samples of 4228 suspected patients this year for test of dengue.
Meanwhile, the unseasonal Swine flu is also continuing to pose a challenge to health department. On Tuesday one more case of the disease surfaced. With them the number of people affected by dreaded H1 N 1 virus this season has reached to 168.
Dr Chandra informed that 12 patients suspected to be suffering from Swine flu are at present undergoing treatment in different hospitals of Dehradun. So far 20 patients have succumbed to swine flu so far out of which eleven are from Dehradun.