Nearly 300 new dengue cases were reported from across the state on Saturday and Kolkata was “one of the six districts” where the numbers are higher than the rest, a senior official of the state health department said on Sunday.
Siddhartha Niyogi, director of health services of Bengal, said the number of dengue cases was more in Kolkata, North and South 24-Parganas, Jalpaiguri, Howrah and Hooghly than in other districts.
“Across the state, 292 fresh dengue cases were reported on Saturday,” he said. “On Saturday, 2,758 ELISA tests of dengue were done in the state, of which 292 samples were found positive,” said Niyogi.
“As of Saturday, 251 persons were under undergoing treatment in government hospitals in the state.”
ELISA test is the most reliable test for detecting the dengue virus in a blood sample, said a public health specialist.
The Aedes aegypti mosquito, the prime vector of the dengue virus, can breed in a pool of water that remains undisturbed for at least seven days.
Such mosquitoes can breed in water that collects in small containers such as earthen and paper cups.
Public health experts and entomologists are urging people to throw away water from containers at least once in a week and clean one’s house or the area around to ensure there is no mosquito-breeding site.
An Aedes aegypti mosquito picks up the virus when it bites an infected person.
When it bites an uninfected person, it transmits the virus to him or her.
On Friday, Kolkata’s deputy mayor Atin Ghosh had said 564 dengue cases had been reported in the city this year.
