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In an attempt to stop the spread of rumours over the outbreak of dengue in the State, the West Bengal Government has reportedly asked all hospitals, nursing homes and clinics to stop making such claims without proper laboratory testing of the disease.
Till Tuesday, three deaths due to dengue were reported from Kolkata. Unofficial sources said there have been 20 deaths due to the disease in the city, so far. Meanwhile, the number of affected cases stood at 699. Of these, 426 (or 61 per cent) of the total cases were from the city
A vector-borne disease (spread though the aedes egypti mosquito), dengue is categorised into the harmless dengue fever, the severe dengue shock syndrome and the dengue haemorrhagic fever. The dengue shock syndrome and haemorrhagic fever categories are considered fatal.
Lab tests mandatory
According to senior health department officials, clinical establishments have been asked to carry out two laboratory tests. One is the non-structural protein-1 test (called NS1 tests) while the new one is the advanced ELISA test.
The officials said positive NS1 test reports do not necessarily mean dengue. ELISA tests (also called MAC ELISA tests) should be carried out for determining whether a patient is actually suffering from dengue or not. In many cases, hospitals have diagnosed patients as suffering from dengue based on the NS1 reports alone .
New Circulars
Keeping in mind the outbreak, the State Government has also issued two new circulars. The first lists the guidelines to be followed by clinical establishments in the case of patients suffering from dengue-like symptoms.
The second circular, issued on Monday (September 1), makes it mandatory for all clinical establishments to report dengue cases to the licensing authorities — the city civic body or State health department — only after they are confirmed through laboratory tests.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday lashed out at doctors for fuelling a dengue scare in the State.
According to her, the State will opt for the advanced ELISA tests in order to determine the extent of outbreak of dengue.
“We have now decided to go for the ELISA tests to determine dengue. Within two days we will get the kits,” she told reporters at Writers’ Buildings this afternoon.
Mamata claimed that till August this year, 1,869 patients were down with the disease in Karnataka, 2,683 in Kerala and 4,675 in Tamil Nadu. While 39 people died in Tamil Nadu, the casualty was 17 in Karnataka and nine in Kerala.
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