• 73 confirmed positive from 439 samples tested since October
• Dengue cases reported from several localities in Dimapur
Morung Express News
Dimapur | November 7
An alarming surge in the number of positive Dengue cases, enough to put Dimapur on high alert has been reported from the Sentinel Surveillance Site Lab, District Hospital, Dimapur. On Monday, the Sentinel Surveillance Site Lab confirmed 73 positive Dengue cases out of 439 samples tested since October till date. Twenty-one (21) samples were confirmed positive on Monday while 52 cases were tested positive some days earlier.
The samples include collection from different private hospitals in and around Dimapur. This significant rise in the numbers of positive cases of Dengue, which was only eight (8) as of October 17, 2016, is an indication that these are not sporadic cases and that the commercial hub should be put on high alert.
Although there has been no fatality arising out of Dengue going by the “official” list of patients confirmed positive from the Sentinel Surveillance Site Lab, on Sunday, a woman patient from Marwaripatti succumbed to Dengue fever at Nikos Hospital & Research Centre. A doctor from the Hospital confirmed this. Dr Moa, District Programme Officer, NVBDCP, Dimapur when contacted said he was aware of the report but was yet to verify whether the patient was included in the list of positive cases confirmed by Site Lab.
Of recent, reports of deaths with Dengue like symptoms, which include high-grade fever, sudden fatigue, vomiting and muscle and joint pains have been emerging from Dimapur.
While it could not be confirmed whether the victims were suffering from the vector-borne disease, according to a doctor from a private hospital, there is high probability given the tendency of people to treat symptoms like fever or body ache as mild illness, take self-medication and only rush to the hospital when it becomes very serious.
Dr Moa revealed that the most affected localities include Diphupar A area, 4th mile with 6-7 cases, Island colony with 3 cases, Khermahal area with 2 cases. This is not to say that other localities are safe. In fact, it has become widespread that positive Dengue cases have been confirmed from samples collected from Chumukedima, Burma Camp, Nagarjan, Railway Bazaar, Rio Colony, Sematilla, Signal Angami, PWD, Sub Jail, Eros Colony, Notun Basti and Nisato colony, Dr Moa informed.
As Dimapur continues to be besieged by growing garbage, nonexistent drainage and increase in stagnant water bodies in almost all the localities, this has led to increase in the densities of mosquito breeding places and therein the rise in the Dengue cases.
Is Govt taking enough anti-dengue control measures?
Recently, the Urban Vector Borne Disease Control Scheme (UVBDCS) Dimapur suggested anti-dengue control measures by requesting the public and colony councils to observe a dry day social work once in a week by draining all the water containers in order to control the densities of mosquitoes, which it stated, would bring down the cases of dengue.
Dr Moa said the UVBDCS have been frequently carrying out mosquito fogging and other control measures in the affected areas. However, a number of citizens felt that the department is not doing enough.
“Simply offering advisories by the concerned department is not going to help control the spread of the victor-borne disease. The department needs to follow up with actions from their side- like frequent fogging of technical malathion, seeding of larvivorous fish to the affected areas etc,” a resident of Notun Bosti lamented.
The same resident revealed how field staff from the malaria department came to their locality for mosquito fogging operation around two weeks back only to go back without performing the operation because there was no insecticide left. “After that they have not returned to resume the operation yet,” he said.
Source from the department, on condition of anonymity, revealed that the predicament lies in the fogging machines which are “very old” prone to frequent break down, lack of trained technicians to operate the fogging machines, even though there is plenty of manpower.
“The department is apparently not giving due importance. Besides the lack of equipments or trained technicians, there is also lack of adequate funds to carry out systematic operations to control the outbreak of mosquitoes,” the source pointed out.
Meanwhile, Dr Moa said the recent fall in the temperature with change in the weather condition in the last few days might bring down the cases of Dengue since mosquitoes are not active in cold temperature.
