With 2 suspected dengue deaths, team sent to Dhandari Khurd and Giaspura

Ludhiana: With two suspected deaths due to dengue, the health department here has sent a team to Dhandari Khurd and Giaspura to conduct a survey. District epidemiologist Ramesh Bhagat told TOI that these were suspected cases and “we cannot confirm these as dengue deaths . A seven-member committee at the civil surgeon office will review the report and then it will be sent to a Chandigarh-based panel.”

Last year, two confirmed deaths were reported from the district due to dengue. However, this year, as many as 114 cases have been reported till October 16 while last year 211 cases were reported during the same time. With 114 cases reported so far, the maximum are from urban areas with 76 patients. Besides this, Sahnewal being a peri-urban area, it has reported 10 dengue patients, while there are seven in Payal, five in Koomkala, four in Sidwan Bet, three each in Sudhar, Manupur, Macchiwara, two 2 in Malaud and one in Pakhowal till Wednesday. Apart from these, as many as 153 suspected cases are from other districts, of which 26 were diagnosed positive.

Main effected areas from Ludhiana include areas of Sham Nagar near bus stand, Nirmal Nagar, Vijay Nagar, Dhandari Kalan, Sang Nagar, Civil Lines, Chander Nagar, Railway Colony, Dholewal, Giaspura, Sham Nagar, Prof Colony, Dugri, Guru Nanak Colony, Field Ganj, Salem Tabri, Haibowal Khurd, Kitchlu Nagar, Ambedkar Nagar, Daba Road, Tibba Road, Nanak Puri, Haibowal Kalan, Shivpuri, Janta Nagar, Krishna Nagar, Shiva Jin Nagar, Kiran Vihar, Abdullapur Basti, BRS Nagar, Upkar Nagar, Police Lines and Bakshi Nagar.

To curb this disease, the health department has destroyed more than 1,292 larvae with larvaecidal and anti-larvae medicine. Water stagnation was checked in coolers, containers and other utensils. Most of the government offices, schools, banks and hospitals were targeted to educate and spread awareness on ‘Friday, Dry Day’. 10,645 camps have been conducted in the form of group meetings and medical camps with 18 teams. A team consists of a worker and two supervisors, a breeding checker and a multi-purpose health worker.

Many awareness spreading activities like checking the larvae of dengue was conducted, where 2,25,079 houses have been checked since January.

Bhagat said, “People should be careful that there should be no stagnation of water in any form. Children and elderly should not visit parks in morning and evening. If then, they should use a mosquito repellent and wear full sleeve clothes.”

He further added, “All centres — from civil hospital to four sub-divisional hospitals at Jagraon, Khanna, Samrala and Raikot and 11 community health centres situated at Hathur, Koomkalan, Malaud, Dehlon Macchiwara Sahib, Manupur, Pakhowal, Payal, Sahnewal, Sidhwan Bet, Sudhar — have dengue wards with long-lasting insecticidal nets. They have capacity from 15 beds to three beds. Importantly, supportive treatment is provided free of cost while Eliza reader for confirmation of dengue test is at two centres — civil hospital and Khanna.”

Rajesh Kumar Bagga, chief medical officer, said, “As the cases will increase, it becomes multi-department responsibility to spread awareness on this. Other departments like roadways , PWD ,CPW should also be vigilant as draining along highways should be cleaned before rainy seasons.”