Rourkela: It seems that the rampant spread of dengue in this town has been brought under control. This has happened due to two factors. First, an aggressive awareness campaign to prevent the spread of the disease was launched by the Rourkela Municipal Corporation (RMC). More importantly, people started following the guidelines of the RMC thereby restricting the spread of the disease. Till August 30, a total of 907 blood samples for dengue were tested at the Rourkela Government Hospital (RGH). Out of those, only 47 turned out to be positive. “It is a very small number considering the large quantity of testing that was carried out,” said the director of RGH, Dr Santosh Swain. He added that RGH has created a separate dengue ward for patients so that they can be treated in isolation. Dr Swain informed that 26 of the 47 positive cases were admitted to the hospital. “So far 22 patients have already been discharged, while the remaining four are recuperating well,” the doctor informed. The statistics regarding dengue are heartening as Sundargarh is basically a fever-prone district. Earlier malaria used to play havoc in the district.
Now however, it has been brought under control, so much so that the central government-run Malaria Research Centre has seen a significant downsizing of staff. A similar awareness campaign against dengue kept it in control here.
Interestingly dengue patients have been found in well-planned localities like Koel Nagar, Basanti Colony, and Chhend rather than in the slums. An RMC staff pointed out that Koel Nagar was one of the worst-hit localities in the city. “We received more than a dozen dengue patients from Koel Nagar. A sewage pipe had burst leading to the accumulation of stagnant water. It turned out to be a breeding ground of mosquitoes leading to the outbreak of dengue,” the official stated.