At least one hospital in Calcutta has seen a sharp rise in admissions of patients suffering from dengue, forcing it to form a separate ward for their treatment.
Woodlands Hospital in Alipore had seven dengue patients undergoing treatment there on Saturday evening. On October 12, the hospital had 17 dengue patients. Twenty days back, the hospital had only two dengue patients.
“We have seen a sudden rise in the number of dengue patients admitted in our hospital, including a group of nurses from a hospital in south Calcutta,” said Rupali Basu, the managing director and CEO of Woodlands Hospital. “Since dengue patients need constant, diligent monitoring, we have been forced to create a separate cohort ward for these patients that is supervised by senior nurses.”
Several other hospitals also have dengue patients admitted, though they said they did not experience a sharp rise very recently.
Belle Vue Clinic has between 8 and 10 dengue patients undergoing treatment at the hospital for the last few days. AMRI Hospitals and Peerless Hospital too had dengue patients admitted in their wards.
A senior official of the Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC), which is responsible for implementing vector-control measures in the city, said that a little over 400 dengue cases have been reported since January this year.
The short spells of rain over the last couple of days and a forecast of more rains in the next few days could create more breeding spots for the Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, the vectors of the dengue virus.
Since the CMC’s health department is still heavily burdened with the Covid vaccination programme, the human resources for vector-control work has reduced.
