Tripura: Spurt in dengue cases in rural areas; 95 pc patients are workers from rubber garden

Agartala (Tripura) [India], November 11 (ANI): The Health and Family Welfare Department of Tripura on Wednesday informed that fresh cases of dengue have been reported in the rural areas of the state and 95 per cent of the cases are witnessed among the people who work as tapers in the rubber gardens.
While speaking to the media persons here, State Disease Surveillance Officer Deep Kumar Debbarma stated that a preliminary study conducted by the State Health and Family Welfare Department found that the water accumulated in the containers of rubber latex might be acting as the breeding centres for the vector-borne disease.
"In 2017, the state reported 127 cases of dengue which was reduced to 100 cases in 2018 and 109 cases in 2019. In 2020, only 24 cases of dengue were reported in the state. In 2021, till now 1715 screening tests were done for the dengue out of which 255 tests were positive," Debbarma said.
He stated that Gomati and Unakoti districts have reported the highest number of cases of dengue.
"In September, a total of 21 cases of dengue were reported which increased to 58 in October and in the first nine days of November, 161 cases were reported. The test positivity rate is recorded at 24.24 per cent," the Disease Surveillance Officer said.
"Gomati district recorded 76 cases of Dengue in November, while Sepahijala reported 27 cases, Unakoti district recorded 56 cases. In South Tripura and North Tripura one case each has been reported," he said.
"The trend shows that the disease is fast spreading and progressing towards the urban areas from the rural pockets. A team of experts from Agartala has visited the affected areas to investigate the reasons and fresh epidemiological surveys would be done. The experts, however, said that there were fewer chances of any casualty if the vector infects a patient for the first time but a second infection may deal with severe complications. As a preventive measure, fogging is being done in the affected areas and a massive awareness campaign is underway," he added. (ANI)