Boy dies of dengue in city

A five-year-old boy died of dengue in a city hospital, taking the toll in West Bengal to two since January, a senior health official said today.
The boy, a resident of Salt Lake, was admitted to the BC Roy Hospital on Monday night with high fever, West Bengal health services Director Biswaranjan Satapathy told PTI.
"He succumbed to dengue last night taking the total number of deaths to two," Satapathy said, adding the last death had occurred three months ago.
According to the health official, 1,260 cases of the vector-bourne disease were recorded in the state since January, this year.

Sathpathy, however, assured people that there was no cause for panic though there was a "slight increase" in the number of cases reported this year compared to last year's.
"There is nothing alarming in West Bengal because of dengue. The state government has taken all sorts of precautionary measures to control the disease in the state. The municipalities are campaigning door-to-door regarding the disease," Satpathy said.

The state Health Department held a meeting with private nursing homes, laboratories and hospitals to prepare them for the possible outbreak.
"We have asked them not to conduct the rapid test to detect dengue as these examinations often throw up false positive results," he said.

Instead, they have been asked to follow ELISA test which was approved by the guidelines of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the National Vector Borne Diseases Control Programme for the detection of Dengue, the health director said.