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The State committee of the Medical Service Centre, an association of close to 4,000 doctors, nurses and paramedical staff in West Bengal, has written to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, urging her to take immediate measures to ensure early diagnosis of dengue.
The State government should stop suppressing facts on the prevalence of dengue and focus on facilitating block-level diagnosis of the disease, which is assuming epidemic proportions in the State, it said.
The State government has till recently been in denial mode about the ‘alarming rise’ in the number of people affected by dengue, but it has now admitted that over 13,000 people have been affected by the vector-borne disease in the State so far this year.
‘Alarming increase’Recent reports claim there has been an alarming increase in dengue incidents across pockets of the State – mostly in Kolkata and its suburbs as well as the adjoining districts such as North 24 Parganas. The Chief Minister had earlier claimed that the number of deaths arising out of dengue was close to 30 in the last seven-to-eight months, much lower than Tamil Nadu, Kerala and even BJP-run Uttar Pradesh.
“The government has been in a denial mode; but as per the feedback we have received from doctors and village health workers, the numbers seem to be much higher,” Ansuman Mitra, Secretary, Medical Service Centre, said.
According to Mitra, doctors were told not to mention dengue in their clinical diagnosis. “Doctors are also being forced not to mention dengue as the cause of death in most cases. This is unethical,” he said.
The State has not been following the guidelines issued by the National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme. The State should undertake routine surveillance in areas affected as well as those where there is even slight doubt of an outbreak. It should also take adequate precautions to ensure that the spread of larva is controlled, Mitra said.
“However, the state government has been suppressing and under-reporting dengue cases. This will make it difficult to get the required funds and manpower under the National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme to control the spread of the disease,” he pointed out.
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