Even though the number of patients affected with dengue in Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation (BMC) area is on the rise and the experts predict that the cases would peak this year (in a three year cycle), there is some silver lining in the number crunching done by the officials.

The civic body health officials, tabulating the figures on a weekly basis, have found that this week (1-7 Sep) fresh cases reported in the area are 319. Last week (25-31 Aug) the number of fresh cases was 217. The total number of cases now is close to 1,050. Explaining the trend in increase in fresh cases from last week to this week, officials said the hike should have been more than double of last week.

“This is significant for us. The surge has not doubled which means somewhere our preventive measures have paid dividends. We are prepared to handle the situation,” said a health official. The BMC has taken a lot of measures this year to check the rapid hike in the number of dengue cases like increasing the workforce looking after dengue prevention measures. They have also involved the councillors in spreading awareness.

One of the main focus areas of the civic body has been to ensure the cases do not get fatal. “One has to be in absolute rest for 4 days from the time the fever subsides (days 4,5,6,7). These four days are crucial because this is the time when usually platelet count falls.

Most of the time, people skip the rest period, which proves fatal. This we are telling people through public campaigns,” said the official. The BMC has released 5 lakh guppy fish, spread over several wards.

They also did a scrap collection drive from houses and response was the overwhelming, said officials. “To intensify our campaign, we have started sending a rapid response team and special conservancy team, involving our 6 boroughs.

The teams have sanitary inspectors, conservancy and health spray workers as members under an assistant engineer. This team ensures quick measures if there are any larvae citing. We also collected Swasthya Sathi data to target housewives, and send them tele-messages on dengue awareness. We have engaged 2,500 people from the BMC area for dengue drive,” said MMiC health Banibrata Banerjee.

The health officials have had meetings with resident associations of various housing complexes within the area and will again hold another set of meetings soon, involving the KMDA, PWD, irrigation department and police. The civic official also informed that to prevent any fatality and quick treatment for dengue-affected patients, the BMC has provisioned for 10 beds with saline facilities at all three Matri Sadans in the area.

We will continue with our drive throughout the year and not call it stops after the cases come down, said the MmiC health.