Rise in dengue triggers panic in Odisha

With the number of confirmed cases rising by  100 in a span of just 24 hours, the spurt of dengue in Odisha has put health administrators In the spot with panic gripping people in the state.

On Monday, the health department had recorded 640 positive cases, but the number went up on Tuesday after 100 cases of dengue were confirmed across several districts in the state. A large chunk of the dengue cases – 313 out of 740 – came from the coastal district of Jajpur. In fact, among the 100 cases confirmed on Tuesday, a maximum of 53 were reported from Jajpur.

Besides this, over 50 cases each have been reported from the districts of Dhenkanal, Cuttack and Jagatsinghpur along the coast and the tribal-dominated Keonjhar district in the North. So far, dengue cases from 19 out of 30 revenue districts have been reported.

Officials, however, said on Wednesday that the situation was absolutely under control. “We are keeping a strict vigil on the situation,” said a senior health department official, adding that dengue had only claimed the life of one person in Jagatsinghpur this season.

The state government has opened special wards in all district headquarter hospitals, besides three government-run medical colleges and hospitals at Cuttack, Berhampur and Burla. The maximum number of dengue patients are currently being treated at the SCB medical college and hospital at Cuttack, the biggest government-run health facility in the state. Till now, as many as 548 dengue patients have been treated at the hospital from different districts, of which 192 are still admitted.

“Of the 192 patients being treated at SCB, four are in the ICU. The condition of one of the ICU patients is serious,” confirmed state Health Minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak, who visited the health facility on Tuesday.