Dengue cases on the rise, Rajasthan health department officials in a quandary

A spurt in cases of dengue has put the state health department in a quandary with January witnessing a total of 478 cases of the vector-borne disease reported across Rajasthan, up from 56 in the corresponding period in 2017.

Jaipur is the worst affected district with 266 cases of dengue reported in January this year, while Bharatpur reported 28 case, Alwar 26, Sikar 22, Jhunjhunu 18, Kota 16, Dausa 15, Ajmer 13, Nagaur and Sawai Madhopur 10 each, Dholpur and Karauli nine each, Churu and Tonk reported eight cases each, Jodhpur five and Bundi four cases of the vector-borne disease, officials said.

“The rise in cases in dengue was due to the high day-time temperature due to which breeding of mosquitoes took place. Now we are focussing on anti-larval measures to curb the increase in dengue cases,” director of state public health department Dr VK Mathur.

State health department figures show that between January 2017 and December 2017, there were 8,427 dengue cases and 14 deaths.

This year, until now no deaths have taken place, but the number of people with the symptoms of the disease has increased, the date revealed.

Until February 11, 130 positive cases of dengue have been reported, an official said.

“The maximum number of dengue cases has been reported from Jaipur district and all measures are being taken to control it,” said chief medical officer Jaipur(1) Dr Narrotam Sharma.

From January 1, until now a total of 886 cases of H1N1 have been reported in Rajasthan and 76 deaths have taken place, health department officials said.

State additional chief secretary Veenu Gupta on Wednesday through a video conference reviewed the situation of seasonal diseases in the districts and directed officials to seriously screen the neighbouring houses of people who tested positive for seasonal diseases to control the infection from spreading.

Gupta also directed district officials to carry out field monitoring and conduct cross checking of house-to-house screening.

“After finding a number of gaps in the field visits, officials moved people who tested positive for the H1N1 virus, to healthcare facilities in Jaipur and Jodhpur that has help in reducing the number of case of the disease,” she said.