Its official. This years dengue outbreak in the country was the worst in at last six years, with 55,063 cases reported till October 28. According to health ministry data, the number of dengue cases has been steadily rising since 2008 — when the count was 12,561 —witnessing a dip only in 2011. The number of deaths due to the disease has increased from 80 in 2008 to 138 this year, although it is far lower than 242 recorded last year. Health specialists attribute the steady increase in dengue cases to a number of factors, including heavy rains, intense construction activity in cities and a better surveillance system that enables detection of more cases. There is, however, a silver lining in this grim tale. The dengue morbidity trend, or the proportion of deaths in comparison to the number of cases, has been coming down. The dengue fatality rate was 3.3% in 1996 when the number of cases reported was 16,517. This has dropped to 0.5% in 2012 and 0.2% in 2013. This is encouraging. The low case fatality rate indicates that surveillance is increasing and dengue patients are being diagnosed and treated before it is too late, a senior health ministry official said. India is in category A countries, along with Thailand and Indonesia, where dengue is a major public health problem and a leading cause of hospitalization and death. However, data from states appears to indicate that dengue cases continue to be under-reported. For instance, according to records of the Jharkhand malaria office, this year 82 cases of dengue have been confirmed. Central data records no cases for this year, revealing a gross mismatch in figures. State health officials say dengue cases and deaths are confirmed by the government on the basis of the Eliza test report. Many districts do not have Eliza machines for dengue tests and are dependent on laboratories in other parts of the state. Health workers also acknowledge that at times they are faced with a shortage of Eliza kits for the test. Health ministry says there is now a network of 394 sentinel surveillance hospitals across the country for case detection and treatment, as compared to 110 in 2007. There are 14 apex referral laboratories with advanced diagnostic facility for back up support of regional centres. But these appear to be woefully short of whats needed. This year, Punes National Institute of Virology supplied 2,762 dengue kits to states. Each kit can conduct 96 tests. Source: TOI
Posted on: Sun, 03 Nov 2013 02:36:07 +0000
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