Doctors suspended as 6 more die of suspected dengue in Uttar Pradesh's Firozabad, toll rises to 47

Firozabad: Three Firozabad doctors were suspended on Thursday on charges of laxity as six more people died of suspected dengue in the last 24 hours here, raising the toll due to the viral fever to 47.

The toll, which stood at 41 on Wednesday, rose to 45 with the death of four more people by late night and to 47 with two more children succumbing to the disease on Thursday, said Additional Director (Health) Agra Division, Dr A K Singh.

Amid the rising toll, District Magistrate Chandra Vijay Singh suspended three doctors with immediate effect on charges of negligence and warned government doctors of strict action for any negligence in treatment to ailing people.

Those suspended include Dr Girish Srivastava of Primary Health Centre of Salai in Firozabad, Dr Ruchi Srivastava, a public health expert and Dr Saurav.

On Wednesday, Firozabad's Chief Medical Officer Neeta Kulshresth had been removed following the spate of deaths, mostly children, since August 18 due to the viral fever and suspected cases of dengue.

In Lucknow, Additional Chief Secretary (Health) Amit Mohan Prasad said taking cognizance of the incident in Firozabad, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has instructed the urban and rural bodies to maintain cleanliness in their respective areas and a special campaign will be launched in Mathura and Firozabad districts.

An ICMR team, meanwhile, rushed to Firozabad and remained busy through the day, collecting larvae in the affected areas for the investigation to find out the variant causing the health problem in the district.

Additional Director (Health) Singh said the 11-member ICMR team along with a UP Health Department team and another 18-member medical team have started the work to find out the causes of fever and ascertaining possible deficiencies in medical facilities in affected areas.

The team members also visited various affected areas and talked to people suffering from the fever and based on their symptoms, collected samples for finding out the cause of fever.

The surveillance team is also working on controlling the spread of mosquitoes and checking the types of mosquitoes, Dr Singh said.

A senior medical department official said cases similar to those in Firozabad have also been reported from nearby districts of Mathura, Etah and Mainpuri.

BJP MLA Manish Asija, meanwhile, claimed that on the basis of information available with him, the death toll has reached 61.

Asija said he is constantly moving about in the area to meet the victims' families and collecting information about deaths.

Meanwhile, to improve surveillance, state-wide programmes will be organised from September 7 to 16 under which health workers will go from door-to-door to identify people suffering from fever and also those having symptoms of Covid. Prasad said.

Prasad said along with dengue outbreak in Mathura and Firozabad districts during monsoon, cases of typhoid have also been found in Mathura.

For effective control of dengue, immediate surveys will be carried out in the areas of infected (positive) patients for prevention and treatment of patients.

In urban and rural areas where one or more dengue patients are found , anti-larva spraying would be done in the entire affected village area or locality.

Prasad said after confirmation of dengue, prevention action will be taken within three days. Spraying will be done in the affected house and 50 adjoining houses on confirmation of dengue patients.

Along with this, programmes will be organised for finding and searching active cases , source reduction, awareness programs for the general public about dengue. Adityanath had visited the district on Monday and given strict instructions to the officials to look into the matter.