Dengue infections and deaths rise, Kolkata Municipal Corporation pulls up its socks

The Kolkata Municipal Corporation in an order on Sunday directed that all urban primary health centers and borough health centers will remain open on all days from September 25 to October 15. Only a day ago, the Corporation had decided vector control activities will be conducted across all 144 wards in the city every Sunday and duty hours of all health department employees have been modified in view of “increased occurrence of dengue cases in the city”.

 Over the past few weeks not only the cases of dengue have been rising in Kolkata but also deaths have been reported due to vector borne disease. At least two persons, including a 12- year old girl had died of dengue in the past week in Kolkata. 

 Mayor of Kolkata Municipal Corporation Firhad Hakim on September 22 has said that the number of dengue infections was at 2700 last week and has increased to 3,802 this week. “The rise in the number of cases is a cause of concern. We have stepped up the cleanliness drive and will continue to do so while spreading awareness,” the Mayor has said.

 Over the past few days, Deputy Mayor of Kolkata Municipal Corporation Atin Ghosh has been making various trips to the places in the city and inspecting whether there are larvae of vector borne stagnant water. Deaths have also been reported in the suburbs of Kolkata, particularly in the municipalities in the North 24 Pargana district. The dengue virus is transmitted by mosquito species Aedes aegpyti.

 While the State government claims that so far only three persons have died due to viral infection, unofficial estimates point that so far 38 people have died due to dengue infection in the State this season.

Another issue raised by the Opposition parties in the State government is not sharing the data of dengue infection with the Union government. The website of the National Centre for Vector Borne Disease and Control Website points out that the data is not available.

During the recently concluded session of West Bengal Assembly last month, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislators had raised the issue and held protests blaming the State government for the dengue outbreak.

 EOM