District hospital among dengue mosquito breeding sites in Ghaziabad

Officials from the district health department said that they have asked the district hospital authorities to take immediate action

Amid the rise in dengue cases in Ghaziabad, the district health department teams have found dengue larvae at five places in the Sanjay Nagar Combined District Hospital. Officials from the district health department said that they have asked the district hospital authorities to take immediate action.

The district hospital at Sanjay Nagar has a special 10-bed dengue ward. (Sakib Ali /HT)

The district hospital at Sanjay Nagar has a special 10-bed dengue ward.

Several teams from the Centre also found dengue larvae at two private hospitals in the district, the officials said, adding that they have doubled the strength of inspection teams to 50 from 25.

“We conducted an inspection of the Sanjay Nagar hospital on Monday and found five breeding sites in air coolers. The hospital authorities have been found erring in this connection for the past four years in a row. We have asked them to take immediate corrective steps. If they fail to do so, we will serve them a notice and also impose a penalty of ₹5,000 per instance,” said GK Mishra, district malaria officer.

According to the official figures, 23 new cases of dengue emerged on Tuesday, taking the tally to 275 in the district, while the total count for malaria and scrub typhus cases stood at 15 and 39, respectively.

Dr Sanjay Teotia, chief medical superintendent of the Sanjay Nagar district hospital, said, “We have given directions to immediately dry up all 25 air coolers in the hospital. Though we maintain the coolers regularly, it is because of frequent rain that water gets filled up. But the coolers have been cleaned now.”

The district malaria officer said that apart from the local teams, several teams from the Centre are also carrying out inspections. “These teams found breeding of dengue mosquitoes inside the flower pots at two private hospitals, one at Mohan Nagar and the other at Vaishali. Corrective measures were taken up by them,” Mishra said.

According to the officials, they have so far identified about 6,000 dengue larvae breeding sites across the city.

“Of these 6,000 instances, we have issued notices in about 2,500, and all of them have complied. The major hotspots are at Govindpuram, Harsaon, Vijay Nagar and Sahibabad, among others. Starting Wednesday, we will start inspection of all police stations,” Mishra added.

According to the officials, the first dengue case this year was detected on September 1. In the past 28 days, the tally reached 275. Of the 275 cases, 198 patients required admission in hospitals, they said, adding the hospitalisation rate is about 72%.

According to the official figures, the number of dengue cases was 621 in 2016, 232 in 2017, 68 in 2018, 88 in 2019 and 15 in 2020. The number of cases spiked in September 2021, with Ghaziabad recording the first 100 cases on September 15, and the next 100 within nine days.