The outbreak of dengue and swine flu has created panic in Jammu as 14 more cases of dengue and one case of H1N1 flu were found positive in the past 24 hours in the region.
According to Health Department officials, the toll has reached to 59 cases of dengue and nine cases of H1N1flu. Two deaths due to swine flu have also been reported in the region.
The Health Department of Jammu has conducted 550 tests for dengue till date out of which 59 cases were found positive, 283 were negative and reports of 208 tests are pending. However, 52 tests were conducted for H1N1 flu till date out of which nine were found positive, 40 were negative and reports of four are pending.
“In all, 52 cases of dengue were from Jammu district, one from Kathua, two from Samba, one from Poonch, one from Rajouri, one from Udhampur and one from Doda,” an official of the Health Department said.
“Four cases of swine flu in Jammu district, one from Rajouri and two from Udhampur were found positive. Out of these, one person from Jammu and one from Ramban have lost their lives,” he added.
Sher Singh, a 50-year-old resident of Chanderkote village of Ramban district, died at Government Medical College and Hospital, Jammu, on September 10. He was the second person to die of swine flu in Jammu region in the past two months. On August 25, a 43-year-old woman died of the disease.
The department said doctors at Government Medical College (GMC) among all the district hospitals were regularly getting patients with high fever and other symptoms of dengue.
Dr Gurjeet Singh, Director, Health Services, Jammu, said all the precautionary measures had been taken and preparations were started a month before and all the hospitals were provided testing kits and other medicines and equipment.
The department has also started an awareness campaign and teams at the airport and railway stations have also been alerted.
The causes
The primary cause of the deadly fever is Aedes aegypti, also known as the yellow-fever mosquito. Aegypti is recognised by white stripes on its legs. It is particularly successful at spreading dengue because it feeds exclusively on humans
Dengue is an acute fever, has two forms — dengue fever and dengue hemorrhagic fever and owing to weather variations, Jammu region has greater tendency of malaria patients which in turn leads to detection of dengue
Dengue spreads tentacles across Jammu, 14 fresh cases in 24 hours
