Kolkata, Sep 13 (IANS) The number of dengue-affected people in West Bengal during the current calendar year has crossed the 5,000 mark, according to the latest statistics provided by the state Health Department.

As per the most recent bulletin issued by the Health Department on Sunday, the number of dengue-affected people in the state, as of September 11, is 5,002.

“However, the alarming factor is that the total number of dengue-affected people till the same date in August was less than 2,500. This means that over the last month, over 2,500 additional individuals have been freshly affected by dengue,” a senior Health Department official said.

As per the latest statistics provided by the department, the maximum number of affected people so far has been from the Murshidabad district at 1,072, followed by Kolkata at 500 and North 24 Parganas at 450.

“This is as per the trend every year, since in almost all the last few years these three districts have witnessed the maximum number of dengue-affected people,” the official said.

However, even amid the massive rise in the number of newly affected persons over the last month, the Health Department officials are finding a silver lining.

“On September 2, the Health Department issued a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) on monitoring and prevention of dengue cases in West Bengal, where the main focus was on door-to-door monitoring and immediate blood tests of people identified as having dengue symptoms. The sudden rise in the number of newly affected people proves that the SOP guidelines have been followed diligently,” the official said.

At the same time, the official stressed that the figures also prove that this year, at least, there had not been incidents of underreporting of affected figures by showing dengue as “unknown disease”, as was rampant during the last few years.

The Health Department has directed all the district authorities to start a massive campaign till October 15 to get people with dengue symptoms tested. At the same time, the district authorities have been advised to keep the department regularly informed with reports on how many people with fever have been found each day and how many people have been tested for dengue.

–IANS

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