One more dies of ‘dengue’,but CMO still puts toll at zero

A day after SGPGI said five more patients — three from the state capital and two from other districts — have been tested positive for dengue,the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of Lucknow ,Dr A K Shukla, on Thursday grudgingly admitted that the three patients admitted at SGPGI,have tested positive.

“Three patients at the SGPGI have been found positive of dengue but both the deaths in the city were not due to the vector-borne disease,” said Shukla.

“Ravi Verma,an employee of Eureka Forbes,was admitted to a private hospital on October 10 and shifted to another hospital three days later. He had complained of stomach ache. He did not die due to dengue,” Shukla said.

According to him,when a tube was inserted into Verma’s body while he was admitted at CSMMU,some blood oozed out from his nose. The CMO’s report to Director General Health that was sent on Thursday said Nishad died of “cardio respiratory arrest” because of “intracranial hemorrhage” and not “dengue fever hemorrhage”.

According to a report of the state Health department,eight cases of dengue have been confirmed in the state from January 1 to October 15 — two from Lucknow,three from Kanpur Nagar and one each from Hardoi,Barelli and Sultanpur. The latest three cases of Lucknow have not been included in the report. “Unlike swine flu,we are not expected to send reports of dengue everyday to the health department or the CMO. We will send consolidated report to the authorities after a few days,” a source at SGPGI said.

Precautionary measures,meanwhile,are being taken by the health authorities to prevent further spread of the disease. “The drive to educate people of the affected area is on,” said Shukla. “All the 34 patients who complained of fever in Alambagh area are already on medication and we are taking steps to prevent stagnation of water.”