DENV-2 variant behind rising dengue cases, deaths in Panchkula: PGIMER
PGIMER declares the DENV-2 variant , which causes more serious symptoms and fatalities in dengue patients, a public health emergency
DENV-2, the dengue virus variant circulating in various states since last year, is what is behind the ongoing spike in the dengue fever and death cases in Panchkula, according to experts from the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER).
Declaring DENV-2 as a “public health emergency”, the PGIMER team probing the surge in fever cases and deaths in Panchkula since September, submitted its findings to the district health department recently.
As of Tuesday, the district has already logged 1,098 dengue cases and five deaths, highest since 2010, as per the data available with the health department. Among them, 31 patients with confirmed dengue and 99 with high fever were admitted at government health facilities on Tuesday.
Confirming the presence of DENV-2 in Panchkula, Dr Arun Aggarwal, head of community medicine, PGIMER, said, “We have found DENV-2 to be behind the high number of fever cases in Panchkula. This variant is more serious among the various dengue virus types and the severity increases further, if another variant was present in the community previously.”
Earlier, on September 23, the team of PGIMER experts had submitted a preliminary report, which had also attributed the sudden spike in fever cases and subsequent “mysterious” deaths to dengue. While earlier the health department authorities had refused to consider anything but the final report, they are still silent on the final report.
Following their findings, the team had also recommended intense anti-mosquito measures, along with IEC activities, in the affected areas, especially Kalka and Pinjore. Further, the team had suggested that surveys be conducted to check if there is sufficient impact of the measures taken.
When contacted, Dr Mankirat Kaur, spokesperson for the chief medical officer, Panchkula, said, “With the PGIMER team’s guidance, we are learning how to manage the spurt in cases because of the change in dengue variant. The health teams are quite alert and we are taking every possible measure to control the spread.”
She said 22 teams had been conducting checks by going door to door. “So far, the teams have visited over 8,600 houses and issued challans to over 5,000 households for allowing mosquito larvae to breed in stagnating water,” Dr Kaur added.
