BENGALURU: The Union health ministry has deputed a central team of experts to review dengue outbreak in the state. Around 7,990 cases and five deaths have been reported in the state this year till Thursday. Karnataka has the third highest dengue cases after Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
Dr B G Prakash Kumar, deputy director, National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme, said, “Similar teams have been sent to Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Kerala has reported 20,000 cases and 20 deaths. Tamil Nadu has reported more than 6,000 cases with 15 deaths. We are doing better. The team will give technical advice on how to control dengue. They will also do some research to check why the virus is circulating despite measures.”
The team will be visiting Mandya that has seen two dengue deaths, Davanagere that has seen one death and BBMP limits that has the maximum number of dengue cases(2,629). Mysuru and Haveri districts have also reported one death each. “Out of the five deaths, four were in private hospitals and one in a government hospital,” Kumar said.
“The team will return on Monday. They will visit hospitals and look at management protocols. We had suspected a lot of dengue deaths. But in our last audit done in June, only five out of 20 were confirmed,” he said.
Dr P K Srivastava, joint director, National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme, will be heading the team that includes Dr Manish Soneja, Associate Professor, Internal Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, and Dr Saurabh Goel, deputy director, Epidemiology, National Centre for Disease Control.
