12 dengue cases in 10 days, fever lays Jadavpur belt low

Kolkata: Neighbourhoods in Jadavpur—Narkelbagan, Dagar Math and Jadavpur Central Road—have reported at least a dozen dengue cases and an even higher number of people down with fever in the past 10 days. Jadavpur University MTech student, Ohidur Rahaman, who died on Monday after being hospitalised with severe dengue symptoms, lived in this Narkelbagan area in a shared accommodation.
For people living in Dagar Math and Narkelbagan, adjoining Bikramgarh, dengue is an annual nightmarish occurrence that they dread. “I can’t tell you the confirmed dengue figures. But almost every third house here has a patient with high fever. A child here died recently after running up high temperature for several days and we suspect it to be dengue. The KMC, however, never admits to it,” said Gautam Nath, a resident of Narkelbagan. An official of KMC’s vector-control department, however, said they were concerned about the dengue surge and were trying to take action to curb the rise, especially in boroughs X and XI, which covered Lake Gardens, Jodhpur Park, Dhakuria, Jadavpur, Golf Green, Baghajatin, Ramgarh, Bansdroni, Kudghat and Garia. The civic officials said they were also monitoring the neighbourhoods off EM Bypass under Borough XII that had witnessed the maximum number of dengue cases last year.
Ashok Talukder, a head teacher of a primary school and resident of Bijoygarh, has just had a trying 15 days. His wife had been down with severe fever and a blood test confirmed dengue. She is still on medication. His sister-in-law, who lives in the same locality, had to be hospitalized for four days with dengue symptoms. “This is a recurrent ordeal. We react only after the dengue outbreak. Yet, no manhole here is cleaned, which leads to waterlogging, an ideal breeding ground for mosquitoes,” claimed Taliukdar.
Kalyani Pal, whose grandson was affected with dengue, said they had put up nets on windows and even the main door. “We know this is not enough. We want the KMC to begin the anti-dengue drive at least two months in advance. It is not that KMC does not carry out spraying of larvicide or cleans the area but there is lack of overall supervision. You find stagnant water in bylanes. There is also an issue with testing enough people with fever here,” she said.
A KMC health department official pointed out that vector control measures had been strengthened around Jadavpur and its adjacent neighbourhoods over the past few weeks. “We have intensified our drive against dengue in the Jadavpur neighborhoods, especially after the death of the JU student. We have also asked the JU authorities to keep the sprawling campus clean. During our vector-control drive on the campus a couple of months ago, we found several mosquito-breeding places. We had alerted the university administration to take immediate steps. We will conduct a fresh anti-dengue drive, keeping in mind students and employees at the university,” said a senior official of the KMC vector control department.