Sunday, 20 AUGUST 2023 | PNS | DEHRADUN
The cumulative number of dengue patients in the provisional State capital jumped to 310 on Saturday with the Health department reporting 24 new patients of the disease. The department collected 1,538 samples of the patients for the Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) test on the day. A total of 69 patients of the disease are undergoing treatment in different hospitals of the district. As per the officials the 240 patients have recovered from the disease while one patient has died from the disease.
Dengue is a viral infection spread by the mosquito Aedes Aezypti popularly known as Tiger Mosquito. The symptoms of the disease are persistent high fever, rashes, headache and pain in the joints. In the acute cases the platelets number decreases drastically which may prove fatal for the patient. In Uttarakhand the disease is more prevalent in Dehradun, Haridwar, Nainital and Udham Singh Nagar districts. The district vector borne diseases officer, Subhash Joshi said that since Aedes- the vector of dengue- are capable of laying their eggs in one spoonful of water so the pots, vases, water bottles and coolers should be decanted. The officer added that the Aedes mosquito bites during day time so it is advisable that everyone should wear full sleeve clothes to reduce exposure of their body for the mosquito to bite.
It should also be mentioned here that the drives which the authorities claim to conduct to check the spread of dengue have appeared to be lacking in the provisional State capital so far. There have been complaints about fogging not being undertaken properly in various municipal wards while checks conducted to prevent collection of water providing breeding grounds for mosquitoes also appear to be lacking this year.
