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Why is dengue not stinging Mamata Banerjee's government in West Bengal?

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Romita Datta
Romita DattaOct 26, 2017 | 11:07

Why is dengue not stinging Mamata Banerjee's government in West Bengal?

If it took 30 dengue deaths and 14,000 people suffering from the disease for more than three months to make the West Bengal government acknowledge officially on October 12 that the vector-borne disease had arrived but in “moderate proportions,” it took another fortnight for the Opposition to realise that the virulent virus was a potent issue to sting the ruling Trinamool Congress and puncture its tall claims on the health front.

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The result of a casual government and an equally callous Opposition is not hard to guess — dengue has acquired epidemic proportions in the city and the outskirts, especially North 24 Parganas, with the number of affected reaching 18,255 within a week after chief minister Mamata Banerjee said dengue was under control.

Even as the death toll continues to rise and the number of affected is spinning out of control, the government is not ready to accept that the situation is alarming. CM Banerjee feels the hue and cry is nothing but a conspiracy to malign the state, especially when Kolkata is hosting the under-17 football world cup.

The CM addressed the media only once on October 12 to rubbish what she felt was plain rumour and bloated figures by some labs and clinics, which were not equipped to carry out the tests as per the National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme. Coming down heavily on the pathological laboratories and alleging them for tampering with reports to push for dengue positive cases to serve their vested interest, she has put doctors on notice.

“Doctors are being warned against writing dengue as the cause of death, even though patients died of it. A 10-year-old boy of South Calcutta succumbed to dengue fever and when the doctors were dithering to put the cause of the disease, the father insisted that nothing but the truth should be revealed to save other children,” said a doctor of medical services.

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There’s embargo on diagnostic centres, pathological labs, private hospitals. Even corporation health offices and government hospitals are barred from "spreading panic"; in other words, they are being censored from sharing on the-ground reports on dengue. Dengue cannot be uttered and, above all, it can’t be documented in any official record. Period!

A notification has been issued this week asking the health clinics under municipalities and civic bodies not to disclose the results of the tests on their own, even though the results show dengue positive virus. The reports should be sent to the state health department, which is authorised to take a final call on this.

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The mayor-in-council in charge of health, Atin Ghosh, who has dengue statistics at the tip of his finger, was not ready to exchange notes. According to him, the WHO guidelines clearly state that death by dengue can be written in the death certificate if the person dies as a result of shock syndrome or haemorrahic fever — the effect of dengue fever.

Death as a result of severe fever or multi-organ failure does not merit to be attributed to dengue, even though they are obvious fall-outs. Such explanations and often desperate attempt to gloss over the reality have complicated the situation further.

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As people suffered, the Opposition realised that it would be wrong to let this issue go by. The BJP with 500 supporters barged in the health secretariat on October 23, burnt effigies of the CM and demanded her resignation.

Banerjee is in charge of the health portfolio as well. BJP state president Dilip Ghosh went a step ahead to suggest conferring Mamata a new award — “Denguesree”, after her much-touted schemes — Kanyashree, Yuvasree, Shikshasree. The very next day the Congress organised a march in protest against a dishonest government, suppressing facts and truth. The Left leaders are doing their bit by giving acerbic bytes.

The activities of the Opposition elicited a knee-jerk reaction. Both the chief secretary as well as the health secretary convened an emergency meeting on October 25 to assure the government was agile, active. “There is no question of hiding facts as it is illegal,” chief secretary Moly De said.

But facts tell a different story. Maybe the response of the Opposition was late, but the issue is likely to keep on swarming and whining for some more time.

(Courtesy of Mail Today.)

Last updated: October 26, 2017 | 13:14
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