At a time when the state government is grappling with the Covid19 pandemic ravaging Kolkata, Howrah and several other districts, reports of two dengue- affected patients undergoing treatment in two separate hospitals in the city seem to be yet another headache to the health department.

A 13-year-old girl of Ballygunge in the southern part of the city was admitted to a children’s hospital in the Park Circus area with high fever, pain in joints and alarmingly low platelet count. Her blood sample tested dengue positive and she was shifted to the critical care unit (CCU) at the hospital.

A doctor attending to the patient said that her platelet count has gone down to 18,000.

“The patient underwent a transfusion. We have already got three to four dengue patients in our hospital during the past one month or more than so,” the doctor said.

In another case, a middleaged dengue patient is also undergoing treatment in a premier private hospital in the Shakespeare Sarani area.

With the onset of monsoon in Bengal dengue has become a menace in the city almost every year since 2017 affecting thousands of people. Expressing serious concern over the reports of dengue cases at the backdrop against coronavirus pandemic Dr Amitava Nandi, a senior expert in tropical diseases and former head of protozoology department at the School of Tropical Medicine (STM), urged the state government to take adequate precautionary measures to prevent and control the mosquito-borne fever.

“It would be unmanageable for the administration to tackle the situation if the dengue fever becomes an outbreak at this COVID-19 pandemic in the state. With new strains, the mosquito-borne disease is turning more virulent every year. The municipal bodies must be vigilant to stop the accumulation of stagnant water anywhere in a residential complex or multistoried buildings under construction. Areas like drains, water reservoirs etc where mosquitoes breed should be strictly monitored,” Dr Nandi said.

“I know many private sector hospitals are denying admissions of non-COVID patients if the latter does produce reports of coronavirus confirmatory tests before the respective hospitals. Sometimes, simple fever patients are not also being sent back by these hospitals fearing coronavirus infections. It will be a severe crisis if any dengue patient who urgently needs medical attention does not get admission to hospitals,” he added saying, “Government must prepare uniform guidelines for all healthcare providers.”