Kolkata: Dengue fear back to haunt Duttabad after student death

KOLKATA: Panic has gripped the residents of Duttabad, a predominantly slum area stretching from Ultadanga to Belighata off EM Bypass and sharing its border with Salt Lake, after dengue claimed the life of Narayan Shrestha (10), a resident of 115 Duttabad Road, on Thursday.
Several persons have been suffering from fever in Duttabad since the last few months. According to locals, the 10-year-old boy had developed fever last week and later it was found that he had dengue.“He had gone to school last Saturday to appear in an exam. His condition started deteriorating from Monday,” said Prabha Makal, his neighbour.
Neighbours said that Shrestha’s family consulted a local doctor initially. “Later, he was taken to Divine Nursing home at Kankurgachhi when his condition deteriorated on Tuesday and from there he was referred to Apollo hospital on Wednesday,” a local said. The boy expired on Thursday night.
Only two years ago, two primary section students of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan school in Duttabad died of dengue. After that, the civic officials declared Duttabad area as a highrisk dengue zone. A seven-year-old had died of dengue in Duttabad last year.
A visit by TOI to Duttabad on Friday revealed that the area is a potential mosquito breeding ground with garbage and waste material lying in the open. Also, open buckets, tyres and containers have been left beside the local ponds making it an ideal breeding ground for mosquitoes. Locals said that civic workers are often seen visiting Duttabad to spray larvicide and bleaching powder, but its effectiveness was under question. “The civic workers come once a week to spray larvicide. It’s doubtful whether it is effective enough to prevent mosquitoes from breeding,” said Bijan Naskar, a local resident.
Bidhannagar corporation MMiC (health) Pranay Roy said Duttabad was not in the list of high risk dengue zone this year. “There were reports of residents suffering from fever, but there were no cases of locals suffering from dengue. After the unfortunate death, we will now reassess the situation and decide if any additional steps are needed to be taken,” he said.
Times View
We just hope this is not the start of yet another season of dengue infections and deaths and the lessons we learnt from last year have not been forgotten.