Woman falls victim to dengue virus

The East Singhbhum administration has issued high alert in the district in view of dengue cases being detected. The step has been taken following a 39-year-old woman who was admitted at Tata Main Hospital on June 18 and was undergoing treatment for fever has been tested positive by MGM Medical College's micro-biological department on Saturday night.

The woman who is a resident of Cable Town in Golmuri is the first patient of dengue positive this year. East Singhbhum district civil surgeon, Maheswar Prasad confirmed about the dengue case in the city and said they have started taking measures to ensure that the sting of Aedes aegypti mosquito which causes the disease that had made 209 people to fall victim in the city last year.

"As per the information the woman was admitted at the Tata Main Hospital on June 18 with the complaint of high fever, vomiting and loose motion and a mild pain in the neck.  The doctors at the hospital first carried a blood test a day after the admission. In the blood test report, they found the presence of dengue virus.  The Tata Main Hospital informed district surveillance department.  Then only the department took blood sample from the patient separately to get it tested in medical college's micro-biological department where it was tested positive," explained Prasad.

However, the resurfacing of dengue positive cases has prompted the East Singhbhum district health department to direct the district filaria for a change in strategy adopting to counter vector (Aedes Aegypti) menace.

The department which earlier used to only spray larvicidal apart from undertaking cleanliness exercise will be opting for destroying unused containers (identified vector breeding centers) in the affected areas and educating people on not allowing water to stagnate in residential areas.

From district health department records, in the year 2010, over 10,000 viral cases were reported in the district in the monsoon period while there were four deaths due to dengue. The figure rose to 15,000 in 2011, mostly from chikungunya and dengue, with one death due to dengue.

"We need to understand that mosquitoes that carry the virus of dengue do not come from outside, rather they generate from the household things like flower-pots, coolers water, rejected tyre kept on the roof top or in the corner of the garden.  So we must ensure that there is no such place where water is stagnant for sometime," said a health official.