No dengue or chikungunya death in Bihar this year: Official

Not a single Dengue and Chikungunya death has been reported in Bihar this year, a senior Health department official said Monday.

The Health department's State Programme Officer (Vector borne disease) Dr M P Sharma said this at a press conference here in the presence of Health Minister Mangal Pandey and principal secretary (Health) Sanjay Kumar.

"Not a single death has been caused by dengue and chikungunya in the state so far this year," Sharma said.

The principal secretary said that a total of 728 dengue cases were reported in the state between January 1 to October 13, 2017 while this year the number of dengue cases reported during the same period is 374.

Similarly, 480 dengue cases were reported during the same period in 2017 in Patna whereas the number of dengue cases has come down to 264 this year during the same period, Kumar said.

During January-October 2017 period, 488 cases of chikungunya were reported in the state against 90 such cases this year, he said adding that out of 488, 427 cases of chikungunya were reported from Patna alone but the figure has come down to 58 in Patna this year.

Asked about the media reports of death of two persons including a doctor due to dengue, the Health minister said "we can not authentically say about the cause of deaths until we get clinical report in this regard."