Deputy Commissioner Rame Gowda, on Sunday, appealed to the residents of Dodda Salundi village near Mysore not to panic over the outbreak of dengue as the district administration had taken measures to control its spread. There have been no fresh cases of dengue from the village, he said.
While clarifying that the 11-year-old boy from D. Salundi, Beere Gowda, did not succumb to dengue on Saturday, Mr. Gowda said the boy’s platelet count was in the normal range and he reportedly had breathing problems.
Speaking to presspersons after chairing a meeting of officials from the Department of Health and Family Welfare and the representatives from private hospitals and nursing homes at his office here, the Deputy Commissioner said the residents of D. Salundi need not worry as the epidemic was under control following steps taken since the outbreak.
Four children from D. Salundi had died of suspected dengue recently. Water crisis reportedly triggered dengue outbreak at the village. A few other children from the village had also been treated for dengue at the government and private hospitals here.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Health Minister U.T. Khader had visited D. Salundi and reviewed the steps taken to control dengue.
Mr. Gowda said a new pipeline had been laid from Udbur village to supply tap water to D. Salundi, since mosquito breeding in water stored in containers during water crisis last month led to the outbreak. He said the authorities have launched an awareness drive at the village to educate people and take preventive steps. Signatures of residents had been taken after distributing pamphlets in each household. In addition, a documentary on dengue had been screened.
The Deputy Commissioner clarified that the school at D. Salundi had not been closed but shifted to the anganwadi building since the school building had been converted into a temporary hospital.
He appealed to the people to take suspected dengue cases immediately to hospitals here in early stages to ensure treatment and cure.
District Health Officer (DHO) Male Gowda, who was present, said a task force had been constituted in each village comprising ASHA and anganwadi workers, gram panchayat officers and the officers from primary health centres. In each gram panchayat, there would be a nodal officer to monitor the situation.
Earlier, Cheluvamba Hospital Superintendent Krishnamurthy urged the DHO to make arrangements for the treatment of suspected dengue patients even in taluk hospitals instead of sending all of them to K.R. Hospital and Cheluvamba hospitals here.
“We have cases other than dengue to attend to and as there are no cases that need platelet transfusion, the cases can be treated even in taluk hospitals. We are facing shortage of beds and staff,” he said.
K.R. Hospital Superintendent B.G. Sagar said suspected dengue cases were being referred to K.R. Hospital from neighbouring districts.
District Surveillance Officer Nagaraj asked private hospitals and nursing homes to send blood samples in suspected cases drawing blood only on the fifth day of the fever to get accurate results. As the test is expensive and is being done free of cost at the district laboratory, at least 96 samples are required to conduct the ELISA test in one session.
After the meeting, the Deputy Commissioner asked private hospital managements not to declare fever cases as dengue until the ELISA test was done. He also asked them to nominate spokespersons to share information on dengue cases with the DHO and the media.
To tackle dengue and other vector-borne diseases, mosquito nets were being distributed to anganwadi centres in Mysore district. There are about 2,227 anganwadi centres in the district and all of them would get nets in a phased manner, Mr. Gowda added.
