Bhubaneswar, Oct. 23: A case of dengue was confirmed yesterday at a private hospital here, sending Orissa’s health administration into a tizzy.

A 29-year old employee of Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) posted at NTPC Kaniha, who was admitted to Kalinga Hospital in the city, tested positive for antibodies of dengue.

The patient, who was referred to Bhubaneswar from the NTPC hospital in Kaniha as a case of urinary tract infection on October 20, had been suffering from the fever for the past 12 days. The hospital management refused to divulge his name.

“We suspected it to be a case of dengue as he showed symptoms of high fever, headache and dropping platelet count. We sent his blood sample to Delhi’s Lal Pathlabs, which found him positive for IGG and IGM,” said Dr Paresh Jena, a medicine specialist at the hospital. IGG and IGM are antibodies produced in the body in case of dengue.

“There is no special treatment for dengue and we have to treat him for symptomatic fever,” the doctor said. “The case is still critical with his platelet count dropping further. We are monitoring him closely and may do a blood transfusion to improve the count.”

The platelet count, which was 99,000 at the time of the patient’s admission, showed a reading of 72,000 today.

The hospital authorities have confined the man to a room in the D2 ward and are not allowing anyone to visit him. “He is showing signs of discomfort, but luckily there has been no internal haemorrhage so far,” said the doctor.

Officials of the health department have gone into overdrive following the confirmation of dengue.

“We have sent two teams of doctors, including one from Cuttack’s SCB Medical College and Hospital, to the area. They will carry out house-to-house checks for cases of fever,” health secretary Chinmay Basu said today.

“As the man was from Rajasthan, some relative from that state might have visited him and passed on the virus. We are trying to confirm this,” he added. CISF sources said the man had not been outside Orissa for the past four months.

“We have alerted all district hospitals to send blood samples of all persistent fever cases to be tested for dengue. Sufficient medicine has been stocked,” said the health secretary. “We are taking no chances and have asked all district collectors and authorities of civic bodies to carry out cleanliness drives.”