number of adenovirus-affected patients across the state the government on Saturday formed an eight-member task force headed by the chief secretary HK Dwivedi to prevent and control the outbreak caused by the viral infection.
The task force comprising members like NS Nigam, principal secretary in charge of health, Alapan Bandyopadhyay, advisor to the chief minister Mamata Banerjee, general medicine expert Dr Sukumar Mukherjee and Dr Gopalkrishna Dhali will sit on a meeting every evening around 6 to take stock of adenovirus and influenza virus H3N2 outbreak in the state.
On Friday, study conducted by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and National Institute of Communicable Disease (NICD), both under the health ministry, with an alarming infection of 38 per cent, Bengal tops the list of the first five states affected by adenovirus in the country.
While speaking to reporters on Saturday at the state secretariat Nabanna, Dwivedi claimed that there has been a steady decline in the number of adenovirus cases in the state. Earlier, around 800 to 900 adenovirus cases were reported daily in the state and now the number of daily infected patients has come down to around 600 on an average.
The state government already streamlined the referral system of sending ailing babies showing symptoms of fever, cough and respiratory problems from district hospitals to city medical colleges.
So far 10,999 adenovirus cases have been reported in the state. Nineteen babies out of these patients have died and 13 deceased had comorbidities. Six victims had no comorbidities, the chief secretary said.
A seven-month old baby of North 24-Parganas died at Dr BC Roy Institute of Paediatric Science died of pneumonia raising the crib deaths toll to 137 since January.