Dengue fever claimed its first victim in the district this year on Wednesday. The District Medical Officer confirmed that Arjun Rajan (8) from Avoli panchayat in Muvattupuzha died of dengue fever.
Arjun was admitted to Kolenchery Medical Mission Hospital on Tuesday evening after he developed respiratory problems.
Three more cases of dengue fever were confirmed on Wednesday. Two were reported from Udayamperoor and one from Kalady. The number of confirmed cases of dengue has risen to 207 this year.
Sixteen suspected cases of dengue were reported on Wednesday. A total of 1,451 cases of fever were reported in the out-patient wards of various government hospitals in the district. Fifty-one cases were reported in the in-patient wards. As many as 121 people reported acute diarrhoeal diseases in the OP and nine in the IP. One case of malaria was reported in Varapetty, according to Haseena Mohammed, the District Medical Officer.
She said an infant death reported on Wednesday from Vazhakulam was not because of dengue. Ms. Mohammed said many private hospitals were slack in reporting the incidence of diseases. Consequently, the burden has fallen on the health staff to collect the number of dengue fever cases reported in the hospitals. Only a few hospitals submitted reports on patients who contracted communicable diseases, she said.
