Dengue has assumed alarming proportions in Bihar, with the number of people afflicted by the viral disease skyrocketing to 7,500 in government records on Saturday.
An unspecified number of patients are approaching private labs, doctors and hospitals for treatment.
To make things worse, the state is witnessing a scarcity of platelets to treat severely ill patients. The Centre has dispatched a team of experts to take stock of the situation.
Several hundred cases of dengue, spread by Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, are being detected every day in various districts.
“According to our data, the number of dengue patients has touched 7,500 in Bihar during this season. This includes figures collected from government hospitals and a few private hospitals and labs that provide their figures to us,” a senior health department officer told The Telegraph on the condition of anonymity.
“The actual incidence of the disease could be several times more as people across the state are relying on private doctors, clinics, hospitals and laboratories,” the officer added.
However, some senior officials held the view that the situation was alarming, but it was not yet time to declare dengue as an epidemic in the state.
“The dengue situation is undoubtedly alarming here and we have to remain alert, take action, provide medicines, increase awareness and issue advisories. However, we cannot say that it has become an epidemic because we are getting variegated trends from different parts of the state. There is no uniformity in its incidence and the fatality is low,” health department director-in-chief (disease control, public health and para-medical), Rakesh Chandra Sahay Verma, told The Telegraph.
Verma said the situation was under control with regular meeting being held at the ministerial and bureaucratic levels. However, hospitals across the state, including the premier ones in Patna, are staring into a severe scarcity of platelets.
Verma accepted that there was an issue with the availability of platelets. “There is some problem. Sometimes there is a shortage of platelets. We have directed the blood banks to ensure that such situations do not arise. We are also arranging technicians and trying to fulfil other conditions to remove platelets scarcity,” he added.
Deputy chief minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav handles the health portfolio. He has been virtually silent on dengue at a time it is wreaking havoc. However, he recently flagged off fogging machines fitted on vehicles to curb dengue.
A four-member team of experts from the Centre arrived in Patna on Friday to take stock of the dengue situation. It visited various areas and hospitals in and around Patna to take a first-hand account of the arrangements to control the spread, available medical facilities, sanitation, testing facilities among other things.
Sources said the team found stagnant water, shrubs and presence of mosquitoes during their visit to the Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) and Nalanda Medical College and Hospital (NMCH) in the state capital.
Residents and officials are hoping for an early advent of winter to help check the disease.