The number of people visiting fever clinics of at least four government medical colleges has gone up significantly over the last couple of weeks and many of them are testing positive for dengue, said doctors.
According to doctors, nearly 20 per cent of those going to the fever clinics of these hospitals are testing positive for dengue. The percentage stood at 10 two weeks ago.
Around 350 patients are visiting the fever clinic at the Calcutta Medical College and Hospital every day.
“A week and a half back, this figure would be between 180 and 200,” a senior doctor associated with the clinic
said.
Intermittent rain and alleged public reluctance to keep the surroundings clean have resulted in a spurt in dengue cases across the city, public health experts said.
A 20-year-old woman from Dum Dum’s Motijheel, Samapti Malick, died of dengue shock on Sunday. Hers was the seventh recorded dengue death in the area under South Dum Dum Municipality.
Samapti died within five days of a 12-year-old girl from Jadavpur, Dona Das, succumbing to dengue-induced cardiac dysfunction.
“The turnout in our fever clinic has shot up by almost 40 per cent over the past one-and-a-half weeks. We are full to our capacity with around 82 dengue patients admitted, including two in the ICU,” said a senior official at MR Bangur hospital, where Dona died on September 23.
“We aren’t sure whether it’s because of rising awareness, but many patients are turning up on day 2 of fever,” he said.
Mayor Firhad Hakim announced on Friday that 3,802 dengue cases had been reported from the city since January. The majority of the cases, he pointed out, were reported in the last 30 days.
Officials of the Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) said 700 dengue cases had been reported till mid-August. The number increased to 1,400 by the end of August. It further rose to 2,700 in the second week of September and 3,802 in the third week.
“Over 100 patients have been turning up at our fever clinic daily for a week or so and close to 20 per cent of them were testing positive for dengue,” said a senior doctor at the Infectious Diseases
and Beleghata General Hospital.
“Patients’ footfall has been rising for a few weeks and we have instructed our staff in the labs to work in shifts so that more blood samples can be tested,” said the doctor.
On Monday, the ID hospital had 45 dengue patients admitted. Two of them were in an “unstable” condition.
The fever clinic at the NRS Medical College and Hospital, too, has seen a sharp rise in the patients’ turnout.
“We cater to a large number of patients from North 24-Parganas,” said a senior doctor at the hospital.
“The intermittent spells of rain are driving the infections. We just hope the curve begins its downward slope soon,” the doctor said.
The spurt in fever cases has resulted in the state government cancelling the leave of around 1 lakh employees of various departments to combat the emergency.
The CMC has decided to keep 41 primary health centres and eight dengue detection centres open on all holidays till further orders.
“Our specific thrust is on running fever clinics at medical colleges, hospitals and at the block level. Admission of dengue patients (in government hospitals) are being routed through these fever clinics,” said Siddhartha Neogi, state’s director of health services.
“Blood samples for dengue tests will be collected 24X7 to avoid any delay in detection of dengue patients. The rise in the test positivity rate is directly proportional to the number of people turning up at fever clinics.”