The uncanny reality is more than stinging. While a large number of patients, down with dengue, make it to MKCG Medical, some of the staff from the hospital have been admitted to private hospitals in the capital city. Striking fear, the aedes mosquito took the life of an MKCG student in Bhubaneswar last Friday.
In fact, the in-charge of the dengue ward has been found to have contracted dengue. Not to take chances, several students have left for homes, although authorities attributed it to puja vacation.
Officially, according to the Ganjam district health office, the number of those affected stands at 414. Of this, 305 were found to be affected by the disease after NS-1 test and 24 tested dengue positive after IGM examination.
Balasore has ironically topped the dengue-hit list. With 14 fresh cases, the number of patients increased to 438 in the district. Four have succumbed, but there is no official confirmation as yet.
The prevalence rate this year is more intense than last year. At least 22 panchayats in Bhogarai block are in the grip of dengue. Nimatpur village has been the worst-hit, registering at least 50 positive cases.
Many have been forced to admit their relatives in nearby hospitals across the border in West Bengal, while others have shifted to SCB Medical, Cuttack.
District Malaria Officer (DMO) Deepak Dasmohapatra pleads helplessness. The disease, he says, has no particular medicine. “The patients are being treated with only paracetamol. The difficulty in treating dengue is that we can treat only the complicated cases. We have taken all preventive measures so that the disease doesn’t spread further,” he claimed.
Of late, there has been door-to-door fever surveillance in the affected areas. But the menace remains untamed and the number of cases are rising.