Govind Sharma
JAMMU, Oct 6: With Monsoon season coming to end, Dengue fever has started spreading its tentacles in whole Jammu region as a total of 26 persons have been found positive for H1N1 virus so far with maximum of 11 cases reported from Kathua district.
According to official sources as on October 6, a total of 457 patients were tested for Dengue in the entire State (454 in Jammu province and three in Kashmir province) out of which 23 cases were found to be positive and reports of 419 were found negative while result of 15 samples are still awaited.
“Also, three persons belonging to Jammu region have been reported positive from other States. No death has been reported due to Dengue so far from any district of Jammu or Kashmir region”, they added.
Elaborating more, sources said that out of 26 Dengue cases, 6 have been reported from Jammu district, seven from Samba and 11 from Kathua and one each from Udhampur and Kishtwar districts. They further revealed that out of these 26 Dengue patients, 16 were males and 10 females.
Microbiology department of GMC Jammu has received 185 samples of suspected Dengue patients so far out of which 178 have been tested. Out of these 178 patients, four have been found positive while 174 has been reported negative for H1N1 virus.
After GMC Jammu, the maximum 111 samples have been received by District Hospital Udhampur but to the satisfaction of the authorities only one of them has been found positive. Similarly, Government Hospital Gandhi Nagar (Jammu) and Government Hospital Sarwal have received 33 and 11 samples, respectively out of which 25 and 8 have been tested. Out of 25 samples in Government Hospital Gandhi Nagar, three have been reported positive while one has been reported from Government Hospital Sarwal.
The District Hospital Kathua has received about 49 samples of suspected patients and eight of them have been found positive while District Hospital Udhampur has received 111 samples and only one of them has been reported positive for Dengue. In district Hospital Samba, six persons out of 64 suspected have been reported positive for H1N1. One suspected case was also reported in District Hospital Doda and three in Provincial Laboratory, Srinagar but all of them were found negative.
When contacted, Dr Sanjay Turki, State Malariologist, confirmed that 26 Dengue cases have been reported in Jammu region. “Health Department has so far tested 457 samples from different parts of the State out of which 23 have tested positive while three cases have been reported positive from neighbouring State.
“People should not get panic. It is expected every post monsoon session due to water logging at many places. We are on the job and the situation is under control,” he said adding “We are taking all necessary measures to prevent the spread of Dengue in Jammu”.
Dr Turki said the main cause of Dengue is stagnant water and the department is spreading awareness among the masses to prevent stagnation of water. He said that our teams in collaboration with Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC) are doing fumigation for past many months.
The Health Department has also released anti-larva fishes in many still water bodies, like ponds, in urban as well as rural areas to prevent the spread of mosquitoes. He said to further prevent this vector-borne disease, the teams of Health Department use to fog about 40-50 houses and surrounding areas near the house of Dengue affected person to check the spread of the disease.
Dr Turki advised the people not to allow water stagnation in empty pots, water coolers, earthen pots, as larva of Dengue mosquitoes started breeding in stagnated fresh water in 1 week to 10 days.
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