BHUBANESWAR: Just 15 blood samples tested dengue positive on Wednesday indicating a steady decline in the incidence after a rapid outbreak that had at least 21 districts reporting under its coverage.Although one more death was reported on the day, the overall percentage of incidence had fallen. As many as 183 blood samples were tested at SCB Medical College and Hospital, Cuttack, and Capital Hospital, Bhubaneswar. Of them, 182 samples were tested at the Cuttack hospital and 14 tested positive. The only sample to be investigated at Capital Hospital was dengue positive. Is it the heavy showers or is it higher exposure to dengue which has caused a sudden decline in the incidence in the last four days? Health experts attribute this to a variety of factors. According to Director, Regional Medical Research Centre (RMRC) Dr SK Kar, higher exposure of infection causes a decline. There will be a large number of infections at one point but less people will actually be affected because there would be no clinical manifestation. People will endure it and the wave of the outbreak will pass through, he said. This is also attributed to what is called as iceberg phenomenon in epidemiology. There are a large number of infections than is known but they do not get critical. Last year, when dengue was detected at Malkangiri, such a pattern was detected. Investigation revealed that a number of households had the infection but there were no clinical manifestations and people got cured without even getting hospitalised. The other reason attributed to the decline is government intervention which left its impact on the vector population. With more and more cases being reported, the Health and Urban Development Departments went on an overdrive. This led to a sharp decline in vector population in districts other than Angul and Dhenkanal, which formed the epicentre of the outbreak. “The carriers existed but their population dwindled sharply because of government intervention leading to lesser infection,” Kar explained. The interventions also showed its result in Angul. Besides, the heavy rains, induced by the back-to-back low pressures did eliminate a number of breeding sites halting the disease from spreading further. As on Wednesday, 912 samples have have been tested dengue positive out of total 2,521 samples tested. Of them, Angul reported 410 cases followed by 100 in Jajpur, 94 in Dhenkanal, 87 in Cuttack, 63 in Jharsuguda and 50 in Sundargarh districts. The death roll has risen to 24 with one more case reported on Wednesday from Ayush Hospital in the City. The deceased belonged to Angul district.
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