UP govt claims to have taken effective measures to combat Dengue

Lucknow, Oct 8 (UNI) A Day after the Allahabad High Court issued stern directives to the district authorities to control the spread of fatal dengue and chikungunya diseases, Uttar Pradesh government today claimed adequate measures have been made to combat them even as they admitted 214 patients infected with Dengue in 27 districts in UP with reports of six deaths so far.

Of the total dengue infected people in the state, 104 patients are in the districts adjoining the national capital.

State principal secretary (health and medical) Arun Kumar Mishra told mediapersons here that Gautam Buddha Nagar recorded the highest number of dengue patients at 46 followed by 38 in Lucknow, 32 in Ghaziabad, 20 in Muzaffarnagar, 14 in Kanpur, 9 in Agra, while 7 each in Varanasi and Farrukabad.

Talking about the killer chikungunya disease, which is similar to dengue, Mr Mishra said only four positive cases have been detected in Jhansi district after taking blood samples of 21,514 people.

Claiming that the situation was under the control of the governemnt, he said all necessary steps have been taken with control rooms in all the affected districts working round the clock.

''Government has already decided to provide free medical treatment to all dengue patients and private nursing homes have been asked to shift all dengue patients to government hospitals'', he added.

State government has already sanctioned Rs 78 crore for preventive measures including fogging and medicines.

Besides, separate wards have been created in hospitals to treat dengue patients.

Talking about the deadly Viral Encephalitis, caused by mosquito bite, Mr Mishra said this year, the disease killed 274 lives in the Eastern parts of the state.

The disease, spreading since the last year after a two-year gap, resurfaced again in 2005. Altogether 1502 people, mostly children are said to be suffering from Encephalitis so far.

However, the state government maintained that only 144 cases have been detected positive with the Japanese Encephalitis(JE) so far.

The worst hit district include Gorakhpur, Kushinagar, Siddharthnagar, Sant Kabir Nagar, Basti, Deoria and Maharajganj.

Yesterday, the Allahabad High Court has directed all the district magistrates to take preventive measures to counter the deadly disease.

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