Hospitals in Jammu and Shalamar have activated standard operating procedure and set up isolation units for patients they believe of having the disease.
Jammu, August 7: The health department has ramped up sample collecting, testing, and hospital admissions after the discovery of at least 26 dengue cases throughout the Jammu area and 3 instances in Kashmir.
Officials said that 48 people suspected of having dengue fever were tested. Nonetheless, one male patient in Jammu city tested positive for dengue and received treatment.
No dengue patient was admitted, but officials said that “of total 29 positive dengue cases, 18 positive cases were detected in Jammu; one in Samba; one in Kathua; three in Udhampur; two in Poonch district, one outstation case i.e., patient is from some other state or Union Territory,” and that “three dengue cases were detected in the Kashmir valley.”
The government checked 2,505 potential dengue cases and found 29 positive results across many districts; three of them were in Kashmir.
The first case of dengue fever was reported in Jammu in January; eight new cases emerged in August; and a rise in dengue fever cases is possible by the end of September. Officials warned the public to exercise extreme care.
The data show that the majority of these dengue cases emerged on August 2, 2023, when two positive dengue cases were reported; on August 3, one case was discovered; on August 4, two cases were reported; on August 5, one case was reported; and on August 6, and August 7, 2023, one case was reported on each of these days.
Officials said that they had begun a statewide awareness campaign in Jammu and Kashmir by placing advertising and banners in public spaces to address the developing crisis.
Blood banks have been notified as part of Jammu’s General Medical Center’s Standard Operating Procedure for suspected dengue patients, and common collection centres (dengue counters) have been set up at both the GMC and the Hospital Jammu; for children, blood will be collected at the SMGS Hospital’s central collection laboratory.
“The department of microbiology will perform dengue NS1 and 1GM Elisa, the department of pathology will perform CBC counts, and the concerned laboratory head of department shall prepare the final reports,” said the official.
For this reason, the GMC Jammu and SMGS Hospitals have set aside ward number 3 on level 2 for the stable patients, while the new emergency ward number 2 can be found on the first floor of the GMC Jammu emergency complex.
Dengue-infected children will be treated in the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) on the ground level of SMGS Hospital in Shalamar, Jammu, while those with less severe symptoms will be treated in Ward 19 on the hospital’s first floor.
