No let-up in dengue spread, 18 die, 1,075 test positive in district

Tribune News Service

Nitin Jain

Ludhiana, November 16

The dreaded dengue fever, a mosquito-borne viral disease occurring in tropical and subtropical areas, is spreading its tentacles fast as 155 cases of this vector-borne disease have been reported in the past week in the district, the official figures have revealed.

While the cases of malaria, a serious and sometimes fatal disease, caused by a parasite that commonly infects a certain type of mosquito which feeds on humans, are under control, chikungunya, which is a viral disease transmitted to humans by infected mosquitoes, has also made a comeback with one positive case reported in Ludhiana so far, the Health department has confirmed.

Till Thursday, Ludhiana has recorded 18 deaths of dengue patients, of which one has been confirmed to have been caused by dengue while the exact cause of 17 casualties is yet to be ascertained.

Another 14 fresh cases on Thursday took the tally of confirmed patients to 1,075, which was 16.85 per cent more than 920 positive case recorded here on November 8 and 40.34 per cent rise in two weeks from 766 dengue cases confirmed here on November 1.

The gravity of the situation could be gauged from the fact that the number of Ludhiana’s confirmed dengue patients has shot up from 81 on August 25 to 252 on September 23, 564 on October 21, 766 on November 1, 920 on November 8, and further rose to 1,075 on November 16, which accounted for a whopping 1,227.16 per cent (in other words more than 13 times) surge in less than three months.

As many as 309 fresh cases have been reported in this fortnight alone. The trend in the past one month showed that the dengue patient count has shot up 131.7 per cent (more than doubled) from 464 on October 17 to 1,075 on November 16.

With over one-and-a-half-month of this year yet to go, the confirmed cases so far have almost touched the 2022’s total count of 1,077.

While the tally of 4,857 suspected patients till date has already surpassed the previous year’s total figure of 3,474, the death toll has also almost come close to last year’s total count of 19.

On the malaria front, 19 confirmed cases have been reported so far. In 2022, 32 malaria patients had been registered here.

However, the confirmed cases of malaria have multiplied almost five times in less than three months to 19 on November 16 from 4 on August 25 and almost doubled in less than two months from 10 recorded on September 23.

Taking cognisance of the situation, the Deputy Commissioner, Surabhi Malik, has directed the district officials of all the departments concerned – Health, Public Health, and Municipal Corporation – to take effective steps immediately to check the further spread of these vector-borne diseases in the state’s biggest and largest district, in terms of the area and population.

Sharing details, the Director Family Planning, Dr Hitinder Kaur Sohal, who is also holding the additional charge of Civil Surgeon, told The Tribune on Thursday that a massive test, trace and treat campaign was being undertaken by the Health department to check the spread of dengue and malaria cases in the district.

She disclosed that 14 fresh cases of dengue were confirmed in the district on Thursday, which included 9 from urban and 5 from rural areas.

With this, the cumulative total of dengue cases has reached 1,075, of which, 121 active patients were admitted to various private and government health institutions.

The district has also recorded the death of 18 patients with dengue-like symptoms but except for one confirmed dengue death, the actual cause of death in the 17 other cases is yet to be confirmed. “17 casualties have been marked as suspected dengue deaths as yet,” the Director Family Welfare-cum-Civil Surgeon said.

Last year also, 19 dengue deaths had been reported in Ludhiana, which included 6 confirmed and 13 suspected.

Dr Sohal said as many as 4,857 samples had so far been tested for dengue while 31,56,463 houses and 49,50,186 containers had been inspected to check for dengue mosquito larvae.

Following the detection of dengue larvae in 4,503 houses and 4,888 containers, as many as 809 challans had been issued against violators.

“Adequate arrangements have been made at all the government institutions to test and treat the dengue and malaria patients with a special ward reserved for dengue patients at the civil hospital here,” she added.

URBAN-RURAL DIVIDE

The urban areas were much more prone to dengue as compared to rural areas in the district. Of the total 14 confirmed patients of dengue reported on Thursday, 9 were from urban areas while villages have reported only 5 dengue cases.

Similarly, the number of active cases was also more in urban areas with 93 seriously-ill patients under hospitalisation in the city while 28 dengue patients had been hospitalised from rural areas.

THIRD WORST-HIT DIST

Ludhiana is the third worst-hit district with respect to the number of confirmed dengue cases. Hoshiarpur was on the top with the maximum of 1,340 confirmed cases and 3 dengue deaths while Mohali ranked second with 1,160 confirmed cases and no confirmed deaths so far.

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