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Virus scare
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Guwahati, Sept. 22: Eleven persons have tested positive for dengue here, sounding warning signals about a possible outbreak of the dreaded vector-borne disease in the city.
While four patients are undergoing treatment at Marwari Hospital and Research Centre, a single patient from Lohit in Arunachal Pradesh is being treated at Gauhati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH).
GMCH superintendent Ramen Talukdar told The Telegraph that two dengue patients — Ratan Biswas from Bharalumukh here and Ganesh Subba from Lohit district in Arunachal Pradesh — were admitted to the hospital on September 19. While Biswas was released on September 20 after he showed clear signs of improvement, Subba is “recovering,” he said.
Dinesh Agarwal, deputy medical superintendent of Marwari Hospital & Research Centre, said 24 suspected dengue patients were admitted to the hospital between the last week of August and second week of this month. He said blood samples of nine patients had tested positive at the GMCH laboratory and reports of another four were pending.
“At present, the hospital is treating four dengue patients. Their condition is stable. The hospital has made all arrangements to equip the doctors and paramedical staff to treat the patients effectively,” Agarwal said.
Dengue is caused by a family of viruses transmitted by the aedes aegypti mosquito, Agarwal said. “Symptoms are headache, fever, exhaustion, severe joint and muscle pain, swollen glands and rash.”
He said the risk of being bitten was highest in the morning, several hours after daybreak and in the late afternoon before sunset.
“We are trying to gather the travel history of the patients before they suffered from dengue to detect the source of the disease. More than 50 per cent of the patients travelled outside Assam and thus, they might have been infected by the disease outside the state,” he said.
Though the state health department has not pressed the alarm bottom over the outbreak of dengue yet, sources said health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma instructed his department’s officials to be on maximum alert to prevent the disease from taking an epidemic form. Sources said the Guwahati Municipal Corporation had been asked to coordinate with the state health department to effectively deal with the vector-borne disease and prevent its spread. “If the situation arises, special clinics will be opened to attend to dengue victims along with the opening of vector-control units at GMCH,” a source said.
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