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Bengal in grips of dengue scare
Killer dengue continued to spread in an alarming rate in Kolkata and its surrounding areas with two more deaths being reported on Monday taking the toll to 21, sources said.
The official figure, however, remained fixed at three, according to Health Department sources. Given the fact that the official toll was unlikely to change till there was a word from Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee who was also the State Health Minister, the State Congress leadership launched a vitriolic attack on the Government for remaining what they called a “passive spectator” even as dengue virus attacked with vengeance.
While official reports said the number of people affected by the disease was 643 with “80 per cent of the cases occurring in Kolkata and its neighbouring areas”, the unofficial reports put the figure to about 2,400 with most patients being treated in private hospitals.
On Monday, a number of private hospitals hung “No vacancy” tags at their entrances citing scarcity of beds. The chief administrative officer of a private hospital said, “The ferocity of the disease can be gauged from the fact that everyday we were getting around 30-40 patients till even the last week but now the number of daily patients has gone up to 50-60.”
Refuting the unofficial claims Trinamool Congress leader and the Government’s medical advisor Nirmal Maji said, “The corporate houses are creating panic in order to mint money,” adding the Government and the people should come together to check the disease.
Opposition leader Suryakanta Mishra, however, claimed the Government was trying to suppress facts “in order to hide its worthlessness and negligence” wondering what made the mosquito-borne disease travel more than 20 km from Salt Lake where it was confined in the initial weeks to southern Kolkata since the Aedes mosquito that carries it cannot travel more than 100 metres.
Killer dengue continued to spread in an alarming rate in Kolkata and its surrounding areas with two more deaths being reported on Monday taking the toll to 21, sources said.
The official figure, however, remained fixed at three, according to Health Department sources. Given the fact that the official toll was unlikely to change till there was a word from Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee who was also the State Health Minister, the State Congress leadership launched a vitriolic attack on the Government for remaining what they called a “passive spectator” even as dengue virus attacked with vengeance.
While official reports said the number of people affected by the disease was 643 with “80 per cent of the cases occurring in Kolkata and its neighbouring areas”, the unofficial reports put the figure to about 2,400 with most patients being treated in private hospitals.
On Monday, a number of private hospitals hung “No vacancy” tags at their entrances citing scarcity of beds. The chief administrative officer of a private hospital said, “The ferocity of the disease can be gauged from the fact that everyday we were getting around 30-40 patients till even the last week but now the number of daily patients has gone up to 50-60.”
Refuting the unofficial claims Trinamool Congress leader and the Government’s medical advisor Nirmal Maji said, “The corporate houses are creating panic in order to mint money,” adding the Government and the people should come together to check the disease.
Opposition leader Suryakanta Mishra, however, claimed the Government was trying to suppress facts “in order to hide its worthlessness and negligence” wondering what made the mosquito-borne disease travel more than 20 km from Salt Lake where it was confined in the initial weeks to southern Kolkata since the Aedes mosquito that carries it cannot travel more than 100 metres.
