Leading hospitals receive minimum of five patients in a week After claiming more than forty lives in Tirunelveli district during the previous outbreak in the first quarter last year, dengue has reared its ugly head again in the city with almost all leading hospitals here receiving a minimum of five dengue patients every week. Though the latest outbreak has not resulted in any death so far, the disease has triggered panic among the public. The fear has increased manifold as anti-mosquito operations, carried out by the Corporation, have come to a grinding halt. The previous outbreak, which initially had its ‘epicentre’ at Kadayanallur in March last, later moved around at its will to shook the entire district, including the areas falling under the Tirunelveli Corporation to trigger a massive influx of patients with dengue symptoms. Even before the official machinery could wake up and react to neutralise the outbreak, all hospitals were overflowing with dengue patients and more than 40 patients breathed their last after being afflicted by this dreaded disease. Though the Corporation conducted anti-dengue operations, mainly fogging, in some parts of the city during the northeast monsoon, it has completely vanished from mid-December. Even after dengue cases from areas like NGO Colony (Ward 27) and its extension areas in the south have been reported in the recent past, the terminated anti-dengue operations are yet to be resumed. The Corporation personnel, who were getting inputs from the Tirunelveli Medical College Hospital on the admission of fresh dengue cases, are yet to get information from the private hospitals here. Subsequently, it has badly affected the anti-dengue operations within the city, a private practitioner here said. City Health Officer Dr. Muneeshwari said only a couple of confirmed dengue cases from the areas within the Corporation limits were being reported during the past few weeks and assured that the anti-dengue operations would move to top gear in the days to come. Deputy Director of Public Health S. Uma said they were constantly monitoring the occurrence of fresh cases, if any, and were conducting rigorous anti-dengue operations in the areas from which the cases were reported. No need for panic “There is no need for panic as all government hospitals are very well-equipped to effectively treat the dengue cases. If the dengue patients are adequately given fluid diets along with the tablets prescribed by the physician, the disease can easily be neutralised. We seek cooperation of the public during the anti-dengue operation,” Dr. Uma said.