This is the story across private and state-run hospitals in Calcutta as dengue, undiagnosed fever and panic combine to keep wards as packed as they were a month ago. This time last year, hospital occupancy rates had returned to normal with the dengue outbreak dying out.
A year ago to this day, the same hospital had 60 dengue patients and 145 with undiagnosed fever. The total occupancy was 345.
Sources in the health department said the number of inpatients diagnosed with dengue had dropped to 25 on November 13, only to shoot up again within two days.
A private hospital in south Calcutta that had five inpatients with dengue on this day in 2016 reported 25 cases on Wednesday.
Public health experts cited two factors as being primarily responsible for the dengue outbreak refusing to abate till mid-November - weather conditions and the state and municipal administration's failure to combat the mosquito breeding cycle.
The dengue-causing Aedes aegypti mosquito is known to breed less when the minimum temperature drops below 20 degrees Celsius. Calcutta's average minimum temperature in November is 19.54 degrees Celsius, but it has been warmer this year with the Celsius averaging 21.7 degrees in the first fortnight of the month.
The return of rain on Wednesday could create fresh breeding sites for mosquitoes, making the slipshod civic efforts to combat dengue even more ineffective.
Hospitals have had to turn away patients for want of vacant beds almost every day over the past few weeks. A private hospital usually has 75 to 80 per cent occupancy. Dengue and undiagnosed fever alone have added 15 to 20 per cent to the occupancy rate.
"Most dengue cases can be managed at home but people panic and request hospitalisation even after we tell them that it isn't required," said Rahul Jain, internal medicine specialist at Belle Vue Clinic.
Comments
Post a Comment