Dengue has claimed four lives in a week in Kolkata, not even sparing the city's upscale neighbourhoods. West Bengal health Chief Prabhakar Chatterjee has admitted that the fever that swept through some areas of south Kolkata is dengue or brain fever.
There have been reports of 4 casualties and blood tests have revealed the presence of dengue in eight other people. The unofficial death toll is seven.All the medical colleges and hospitals have been instructed to contact the School of Tropical Medicine and NICED (National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases) whenever they find a patient with dengue symptoms.
Health officials said about 100 people suffering from fever were showing symptoms of dengue, which often causes death when the fever reaches the brain. The disease spreads through the bite of the Aedes Aegypti mosquito.
Reservoirs constructed for scores of big and small housing projects, water collected in road excavation sites, accumulated garbage and rooftop water accumulation are the breeding ground of the Aedes mosquito.
An emergency meeting was held between the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) and the state health department on Monday lay down measures to combat dengue.
The disease has mainly been reported from Lake Gardens, Golf Green, Dhakuria, Jodhpur Park, Tollygunge, Santoshpur and Jadavpur, which have posh apartments as well as slums.
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Source: Indo-Asian News Service
