Haryana Grapples with Dengue Outbreak, Cross-Border Meetings for Control

Haryana continues to witness an acute spike in fresh cases of dengue adding to the woes of the health department. Despite the repeated efforts of the department, the scenario remains unchanged in terms of spurt in cases. Seriousness can be gauged from the statistics that more than 4 thousand have been reported in the state […]

by Ravinder Malik - October 7, 2023, 1:36 pm

Haryana continues to witness an acute spike in fresh cases of dengue adding to the woes of the health department. Despite the repeated efforts of the department, the scenario remains unchanged in terms of spurt in cases. Seriousness can be gauged from the statistics that more than 4 thousand have been reported in the state so far and patients from the adjoining states continue to visit the hospitals for the treatment in the state putting extra burden. In view of this, a cross-border meeting was organized with the health officials of the State of Himachal Pradesh on 6 June 2023 to pay attention to the highly vulnerable areas of Kalka and Parwanoo. A cross-border meeting with the State of Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh and Uttar Pradesh was held on 24 April 2023 under the chairmanship of Senior Regional Director, RoHFW, Government of India, Chandigarh. As many as 4298 cases have been reported in Haryana with an average of more than 450 cases every month. Although there is a decrease in cases compared to last year, at present the circumstances are favorable for the spread of the disease which is most likely to result in the increased numbers of patients. In the year 2015, a total of 9921 dengue cases were reported in the state. Whereas 2494, 4550, 1936, 1207, 1377, 11835 and 8996 cases were confirmed in the year 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 respectively.  So far 4 people have lost their lives due to the disease in Haryana. Although it is believed that more people have died due to the disease, some deaths have been kept in the category of suspicious deaths by the department. As many as 48 patients have lost their lives due to the disease from the year 2015 to 31 September 2023. It is pertinent to mention that Charkhi Dadri district emerges on the top with a maximum of 471 patients followed by 318, 317, 300, 281 and 260 patients reported in Panchkula, Yamunanagar, Rewari, Hisar and Jhajjar districts respectively. The statistics revealed that about 3 thousand new dengue cases were reported in Haryana in the month of September alone. Out of the total of 4298 patients, 1453 cases were reported in Haryana till August 31 this year while the remaining cases surfaced in the months of September and October.  As many as 41 cases of malaria were confirmed in Haryana and 72 cases of chikungunya till August 31. After this, a total of 73 cases of malaria have been reported so far. Whereas in the case of Chikungunya, the increase was more than 4 times in a period after the month of August. It is pertinent to mention that 150 wards and 978 beds have been reserved in the Civil Hospitals for dengue patients. Door-to-door source reduction activities i.e. identification and elimination of breeding sources of 160 mosquitoes are being carried out. 590 Domestic Breeding Checkers (DBCs) have been deployed in all the districts from July 1 to strengthen source reduction activities.