Cases of dengue are on a rise in Ahmedabad despite the fact that the meteorological department has officially announced the end of monsoon in Gujarat. Dengue fever is a mosquito borne viral infection which typically occurs during the monsoon season when the weather is warm and humid, allowing the mosquitoes to breed.

It causes a severe flu-like illness and, sometimes causes a potentially lethal complication. The incidence of dengue has increased 30-fold over the last 50 years. Dengue fever symptoms include a fever, intense headache, body aches, joint pains, loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, and skin rashes and mucosal bleeding. The disease can be fatal in nature if it’s not diagnosed and treated on time. There is no specific treatment for dengue fever, but adequate fluid intake and bed rest is important.

Ahmedabad’s Asarwa Civil Hospital, SVP hospital and LG Hospital campuses to check if the residents and MBBS students were struck by dengue. Their report stated that as per students’ claims there have been cases of dengue in the past month, but numbers are not huge in comparison to Jamnagar medical college.

A member of junior doctors association of Asarwa Civil Hospital told that, “There were cases before 20 days, but for the past few days there have fewer cases. We took up cleanliness drive with residents of preventive social medicine (PSM) in PG hostels and cleaned all the stagnant water and problem areas.”

Dr Jayesh Sachde, additional dean of BJ Medical College said, “We have taken up comprehensive fogging and cleanliness drive in hostel areas and college to keep mosquitoes away. We also clean all the stagnant water and clear all the debris. We also take up fogging and cleanliness activity in lecture halls. For us the student’s safety is top priority and we take all the steps for that. We also take help from project implementation unit (PIU) of civil hospital.”

Civil Superintendent M M Prabhakar said, “We take up special cleanliness drives every week apart from daily cleaning activities to keep mosquitoes and other illnesses away. Our sanitary inspectors are always on their toes. Since January till date, we have recorded 13 cases of doctors.”

According to the report, students at SVP claimed that the hostel is not well-maintained. Dr Kuldeep Joshi said, “At present, not a single doctor related to our hospital is admitted for dengue in our hospital. So there is no influence of dengue on campus. We take up fogging and other activities in coordination with AMC.”

In LG Hospital, in past 10 days there has been no case noticed as per resident doctors staying there. One resident doctor told that, “Six cases were registered over a period of 20 days. But in last 10 days, no case could be seen by us.” Dr Gopal Desai, RMO of LG Hospital, told that, “We had noticed two cases before 10 days. We maintain the cleanliness as per the AMC guidelines and at present there are no such cases.”