Basirhat: A Class XI student from Taki in North 24-Parganas, who had been suffering from fever since November 22, died on Saturday.

Taki is close to Deganga, in the same district, which has been in the grip of fatal fever over the past month and a half.

Family members said Bibhash Swarnakar, 18, was taken to a rural hospital in Taki on November 23, a day after he had fever.

The hospital does not have the facilities for the NS1 Antigen test for dengue. The doctor at the hospital sent Bibhash home after prescribing paracetamol.

The teenager's condition started deteriorating and he was admitted to the rural hospital on November 24.

"The same night he was referred to Basirhat Sub-divisional Hospital as his condition kept worsening," an official in the North 24-Parganas health department said.

Doctors at the Basirhat hospital referred Bibhash to RG Kar Medical College and Hospital. The boy died while being ferried to the city hospital on Saturday afternoon.

At least 45 fever patients have died in Deganga and its adjoining areas over the past one-and-a-half months. Sources said several of them had tested positive for dengue.

Residents blame the negligence of the district health department for the fever outbreak and the deaths.

"No health camp has been organised in the area. The local health centres do not have the facilities for blood tests to detect dengue," said Mosharaf Mollah, a resident of Deganga.

"The Biswanathpur Block Primary Health Centre collects blood samples from a certain number of patients daily and sends them to Barasat District Hospital for the dengue test. The others are sent home with paracetamol tablets."

The fever outbreak is likely to figure at the administrative meeting chief minister Mamata Banerjee is to chair in Haroa, close to Deganga, on December 1. "The issue will get priority as the meeting is being held in one of the fever-hit pockets in the district," an official in the North 24-Parganas administration said.