Concerned over more and more cases of dengue being reported in Dehradun, Uttarakhand Governor Dr KK Paul convened a meeting of health department officials at the Rajbhawan on Thursday. The number of cases in the city has touched 500. Among those who attended the meeting were DG (Health) in-charge Dr SC Pant and the principal of Government Doon Medical College, Dr Pradeep Bharti.
Taking a serious note of the spiraling dengue cases in Dehradun and other parts of the state, Dr Paul said that disposal of garbage must be arranged for on a top priority basis.
He said special care must be taken and intensive awareness must be spread through audio-visual aids. People should also be made aware of Ayurvedic cures for such diseases. He told the Director-General (health) that adequate medicines and platelets must be arranged for the patients in the hospitals.
It would be pertinent to mention here that the first dengue case this season in Dehradun was reported on July 13. Since then the number has been jumping. Now the figure of the afflicted reaching to over 500 has been triggering panic.
The departmental data reveals that 497 people in Dehradun have been found positive for the disease so far. The health experts are also intrigued by the rapid increase in number of dengue cases in such a short span of time. The health department officials confirmed that they have never witnessed such a rapid rise in the number of such cases with the onset of monsoon in Dehradun in the past.
In the initial phase, the disease outbreak was reported from Patharibagh area where cases were reported from almost every household. The visits of the Chief Minister and the Health Minister ensured that the district health department plunged headlong into combating the menace. However, other localities remaining out of bounds for the health department's care proved costly with the disease spreading its wings far and wide across the State Capital.
The cases of affliction are now being reported from the traditional hotspots like Dl Road, Shimla Bypass, Deep Nagar and Bhagat Singh Colony. The areas like Race Course and Rajpur Road have emerged as new areas where the disease is being reported in good numbers now. Initially, the health officials tried to make light of things by denying the death due to dengue, but with things turning grave, they chose to evade the media.
The truth is that the patients are not getting platelets in right measure.
Talking to 'The Pioneer', a senior officer said that he has appealed to the people to keep their old bottles or jars empty and spray kerosene in cooler and AC regularly to keep the menace at bay. Despite his claim that he has instructed the department to make arrangement of platelets, the reality is different on the ground.
Now, the Governor having stepped into the scene, the people hope that things would turn better for them.