15 more suspected dengue cases reported

Victims are from fever hit D Salundi, surrou-nding villages

Panic grips D Salundi village on Mysore - Manandavadi road, as four children have already died due to Dengue fever and the number of suspected dengue cases are still on the rise.

On Saturday, starting from 8 am to evening, the health staff at the temporary hospital set up at the government higher primary school in the village examined 210 persons from Salundi, Dhangalli and other villages in the surrounding till 1 pm. 

Of them, 15 persons suspected to be suffering from Dengue fever were referred to a Mysore hospital, taluk health officer Dr T Ravikumar told Deccan Herald.

Those referred included nine month old Rakshita and her elder sister Harshita, aged six and daughters of Kempa Nayaka of Jayapura. Jyothi, wife of Mahadeva Swamy of Dhangalli, (who is five months pregnant) has not stopped crying ever since she was attacked by the fever on Friday night. She is obviously worried about the fate of her child in the womb.

The others who have been hit by the fever are -- Akash, aged 3.5 years, son of Chikkabasave Gowda who had come to his grandparents place at Gopalpura; Sanjay, five years, son of Basavaraj, Thibbaiahanahundi; Ramya, six years, daughter of Basappa, D Salundi; Deepu, nine years, son of Chaluvaraju of D Salundi; Pavan, 10, son of Nagesh, Dhangalli; and Sindhu, 11, daughter of Guruswamy, Dhangalli.

On Friday, of the 150 people examined, 19 were referred to Mysore hospitals for further treatment. Barring the government owned Cheluvamba Children’s Hospital where 11 children are being treated for the past few days, nearly 60 other children from D Salundi and surrounding villages have admitted at different private hospitals over the last few days.

Ravikumar said that the health workers are also going door to door to educate the villagers on how to curb the breeding of aedis aegypti (a type of mosquito that spreads dengue fever) in the stagnant water.

As they have lower immunity levels, children are more prone to fever when compared to adults. The only way to prevent the disease is taking measures to keep hygienic surroundings and also consume boiled water, the doctor added.