A central team that was sent to Uttar Pradesh’s Firozabad for investigating the cause of a fever outbreak and deaths among children has found that the majority of cases are of dengue while the other few are of scrub typhus and leptospirosis.
Firozabad district has recorded 51 deaths till now, mostly of children, and hundreds of hospitalisations in over a period of two weeks. The viral fever has also been spreading to neighbouring districts of Mathura and Mainpur.
Based on such observations of the central team, the Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan, on Monday, wrote a letter to the Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary; wherein he has recommended containment measures and screening of all the fever patients for dengue, scrub typhus, malaria and leptospirosis. He also highlighted the need to extend ELISA based testing facilities.
The health secretary mentioned that the activities related to fever survey, fever camps and vector control must continue under a micro plan given by the central team. He also recommended to strengthen the surveillance with the implementation of the Integrated Health Information Platform (IHIP) in the area with the coordination of central surveillance unit at the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC). Meanwhile, entomological activities be continued according to the established guidelines of National Vector Borne Disease Control Program.
He has also recommended the addition of isolation beds and admission facilities in the district’s hospital as well as neighbouring areas along with arranging a reorientation of all the doctors at community health centres and primary health centres.
Meanwhile, the NCDC has commissioned two officials in the district for the next two weeks for assisting the district administration in consolidating its outbreak response.
This comes as the western part of Uttar Pradesh is fighting with a major outbreak of dengue. The worst-affected districts in the region include Mathura and Firozabad with more than a hundred cases.
In response to this, the Firozabad district administration will release around 25,000 fishes that eat larvae of dengue-breeding mosquitoes in ponds for checking the spread of disease, reported news agency PTI, quoting a district official. The fishes, known as Gambusia, are being released in ponds in rural as well as urban areas of the district.
Meanwhile, the district magistrate Chandra Vijay Singh has ordered the health and municipal corporation officials to run a door-to-door survey for draining out stagnant water from pots, coolers and other containers.