No dengue deaths, says BBMP

209 out of 706 blood samples test positive

According to BBMP Commissioner Siddaiah, 706 blood samples were tested at the National Institute of Virology (NIV) laboratory out of which 209 were confirmed positive for dengue till date.

He insisted that none of the deaths have been attributed to the disease. In the State, 742 samples were tested out of which, only one was a dengue death, this year.
BBMP has also issued show cause notice to three hospitals - St John’s Hospital, Gayathri Hospital, Vijayanagar and Tirumala Hospital, Kamakshipalya - for not reporting about dengue deaths in the hospitals, on July 23. The Municipal Authority alleged that section 402 Dangerous Disease Act under the Karnataka Medical Registration Act stated that every hospital should notify suspected, as well as death related to communicable diseases to the civic body.

High risk areas
Although, there have been no ‘official’ deaths in the City, Mahadevapura, Shivajinagar, Sarvagna Nagar, C V Raman Nagar and Chamarajpet were identified as high risk areas for dengue by BBMP.

Not ignoring the rising cases of dengue, the Health Department is planning to add seven Sentinel Surveillance Centres to the existing seven centres to conduct blood test on suspected dengue cases, this year. In fact, MAC ELISA kits have already been supplied to these centres from NIV, Pune.

The 14 centres are at Belgaum, Mangalore, Shimoga, Bellary, Kolar, Hubli and Bangalore with new addition being in Chitradurga, Bidar, Bijapur, Mysore, Hassan, Raichur and Tumkur. A field station lab at NIV, Victoria Hospital campus and NIMHANS lab are also available.

The municipal body claims it has employed 45 regular gangmen along with an additional 250 gangmen on contract basis. They have been deployed to carry out the larvicidal and adulticidal operations in the appointed wards.

BBMP officials have also visited door to door and identified breeding sites and eliminated the source.

The house owner’s signature is also being obtained in the process. A report of this is being verified by the Samparka Bandhu deputed by the local BBMP members every day at 3 pm.

Besides this, three gangmen have also been allotted to each ward to spray insecticide in the breeding areas. Insecticide spraying is also done in major rain water drains and other drains. The fogging unit carries out insecticide fogging operations between 6 and 7 pm in affected areas.

87 chikungunya cases
BBMP has reported 87 chikungunya cases with 588 confirmed cases in the State, this year. In 2009, 726 out of 3,239 suspected cases were confirmed for Chikungunya.
DH News Service

Lingarajapuram case
The reports of the death of a woman from Lingarajapuram, who was suspected to have dengue, was trashed by BBMP Chief Health Officer Dr L T Gayathri.
She said that Prema (24), who had fever for three days had gone to Mahaveer Jain Hospital.
However, she refused to get admitted at the hospital. Eventually, she died on Tuesday and was taken to Sathya Hospital in Kammanahalli, where she was declared dead on arrival.