The dengue fever situation in the State continues to be grave, with more fever-related deaths being reported on Saturday.
The official figures of the Integrated Disease Surveillance Project of the Health Department reported 138 confirmed cases and 680 suspected cases of dengue on Saturday. Eight deaths were reported on Saturday, though some of these are late reports from districts.
Three suspected dengue deaths were reported from Alappuzha, Palakkad and Thiruvananthapuram and two fever deaths from Kollam and Kottayam. There were also reports of the death of two young children of fever and complications, a 10-year-old from Vellayani in Thiruvananthapuram and another from Palakkad, but these are yet to enter the official records.
HIN1 has claimed three lives in the State, at Ernakulam, Kollam (suspected) and in Kozhikode. The total number of H1N1 deaths so far this year is 53.
On Saturday, 18,873 people reported in various OP clinics in the State with fever.
Of the 138 confirmed dengue cases in the State, 70 are from the capital city. Nine cases of leptospirosis and 13 cases of H1N1 were also reported on Saturday.
The total number of confirmed dengue cases in the State has risen to 6,943. Though there are 13 confirmed dengue deaths, 39 deaths are suspected to be related to dengue. The actual number of cases could be several fold as most of the private hospitals are not reporting their daily cases or death figures to the government.
“Many death reports are not reaching the District Medical Officers on time daily because many of our officials are also sick and on leave,” a senior health official said.
In the current dengue fever situation, Thiruvananthapuram is the worst off because field-level activities are poor and the public are complacent about taking up vector-control activities.
“At Mattannur in Kannur, after a dengue outbreak was reported in April-May, the public just took up the source reduction activities in a campaign mode along with the health workers and the epidemic could be contained well. In Wayanad and Idukki too we have had excellent community participation. But in Thiruvananthapuram, despite the climbing number of cases and deaths, prevention and control activities are a nought,” he said.
