Kolkata, Sep 7 (IANS) The number of new dengue cases in West Bengal, in the last seven days, have crossed the 500 mark, according to statistics available from the state Health Department.
The state Health Department officials claimed that following the release of a standard operating procedure for monitoring and preventing dengue cases in the state on September 2, an extensive exercise for door-to-door monitoring and immediate blood testing of people identified as having dengue symptoms was carried out.
Following that extensive exercise, over 500 new dengue-affected cases in the state had been detected in the last seven days, an official said. With these 500 new cases detected in the last seven days, the total number of dengue-affected people during the current calendar year, or to be more precise, during the current monsoon, has crossed the figure of 4,500, the official said.
Murshidabad had been the worst-affected district both in terms of the new cases during the last seven days as well as in terms of the numbers during the current calendar year. Of the 500-odd newly detected cases during the last seven days, 96 are from Murshidabad alone. Similarly, of the 4,500 cases of total dengue-affected people during the current calendar year, 870 had been from Murshidabad alone.
Kolkata is in the second position, with the total number of affected people during the current calendar year being 402. The number of newly affected people in the last seven days is 62.
The Health Department official also provided statistical details on the progressive increase in the number of dengue-affected cases in the state since April.
As per statistics provided by the department, 770 people were infected with dengue in the state till April 30, which progressively increased to 1,946 till July 31, 3,966 till August 31 and little over 4,500 till date.
“However, the good thing is that whatever the figures that have surfaced this year are 100 per cent authentic, without any question of underquoting the affected figure or describing dengue as ‘unknown fever’ – a phenomenon which was rampant during the last few years. The instructions from Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari for the medical institutions are very clear. If the case is dengue, it should be reported as dengue and not as any ‘unknown fever’. So, the figure this year so far is 100 per cent authentic,” the Health Department official said.
Earlier this year, the Chief Minister requested the people not to panic about the dengue situation amid continued heavy downpour, and also said that the situation, though serious, was not highly alarming.
He also said that the number of dengue-affected people in West Bengal during the current and ongoing monsoons, though high, is much less compared to what the figure was during the monsoons of the previous year
–IANS
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