PANAJI
Health Minister Vishwajit Rane on Monday asked Goans not to take the dengue threat lightly and to do a rapid test and get medical help as the drop of platelets could prove dangerous in certain cases.
Rane said, Goa has seen a spike in cases or ‘suspected cases’ in August-September and added that the entire public health setup is monitoring the situation.
He said proper standard operating protocols (SOPs) are being drawn such as testing at government facilities, frequency of testing platelet counts in patients with positive test or suspected dengue and treatment protocols.
Goa, according to the state epidemiologist Dr Prashant Suryavanshi, has had 152 confirmed dengue cases and 4,511 ‘suspected’ cases in August and September to date. Also, there have been 16 deaths reported by GMC of dengue or suspected dengue this year (January to date). Dr Suryavanshi however added that the deaths are still being scrutinised as to whether they can be attributed to dengue or there has been some other reason.
“Death audit is being done as to whether dengue was the only cause of death or there are other causes. In some cases, it has been revealed that the patients were alcoholic and had other complications,” Dr Suryavanshi said.
He also said, although the September numbers are high, they are much lower than the August figures and there is a decline.
September thus far has 1392 people who tested positive for dengue in the rapid test as against the 3,000-plus in August.
Of the September’s number, only 72 cases are “confirmed” as having dengue after the norm of Elisa test, he said. In August the confirmed dengue cases of the 3119 who tested positive with the rapid kit was 80 cases.
According to Dr Suryavanshi, Mormugao-Vasco, parts of Panaji, Chimbel and Candolim are hotspots at the moment.
