A doctor checks a dengue patient at Ram Ratan Hospital on Friday. Picture by Deepak Kumar

Be careful if you suddenly get fever accompanied by pain in legs, joints and lumbar region of spine. It could be dengue.

Two confirmed cases have been reported in Patna.

Doctors have asked residents to take precautions. The cases were reported from Rajeshwar Hospital and Ram Ratan Hospital.

“While the fever comes under control in four days, during dengue the blood platelet count starts falling drastically, requiring doctors to give the patient platelets and keep him under constant observation,” said Patna Medical College and Hospital’s Dr V.P. Sinha. If blood platelet count drops drastically, the patient might begin bleeding from nose or gum, which could be dangerous. “But in most cases the condition stabilises after infusion of platelets,” he said.

The disease can affect anybody but the attack is severe if the patient’s immune system is poor. “It is possible to get dengue fever several times. But an attack produces lifetime immunity against the strain,” Sinha said.

Talking about precautions one needs to take, he said, “Since the virus is spread by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, one needs to cover oneself up from head to toe to avoid being bitten by the mosquito. It’s best to use a mosquito net and going to areas where water has accumulated,” said Sinha.

Asked about PMCH’s preparedness, its superintendent Dr Amar Kant Jha Amar said, “Our hospital is fully prepared to tackle dengue cases. We have over 200 testing kits and three isolated wards for dengue patients.”

But no testing kits were available at Nalanda Medical College and Hospital, its superintendent Dr Shiv Kumari Prasad said. His deputy, Dr Santosh Kumar, said the hospital had isolated wards for dengue cases but in the absence of testing kits, “we refer suspected cases to the Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences”.

Asked about the preparedness at district hospitals and primary health centres, an official at the civil surgeon’s office said: “Today we took a decision to engage Asha and ANM workers to spread awareness about symptoms and precautions door to door.”

The civic body has helped create conditions conducive for spread of dengue by doing nothing. Stagnant water and open drains, conditions favourable for Aedes mosquitoes to breed in, could be found in Daldali, Pirmohani and Bakerganj areas of Patna. “Water has accumulated for a long time in my area but the civic body did not think even once about fumigating the place,” said Veena Jaiswal of Bakarganj.

A source at the Patna Municipal Corporation told The Telegraph that they have only four fogging machines, two of them defunct.

“In the budget meeting of Patna Municipal Corporation, officials had decided to procure 72 fogging machines but not a single machine has been bought so far,” said ward number 28’s councillor Vinay Kumar Pappu.