Nearly 300 dengue, viral fever patients admitted to hospital in Uttar Pradesh's Kanpur

Amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, a devastating dengue outbreak has wreaked havoc across India with Uttar Pradesh being the worst-hit state in the country. Over the past month, nearly 300 people including children have been admitted to Kanpur’s Lala Lajpat Rai Hospital following dengue, malaria and viral fever outbreak in the city.

According to media reports, Dr Sanjay Kala, head of Lala Lajpat Rai Hospital, said: “More than 250 patients with viral fever have been admitted to our hospital for about a month. Most of the patients recovered while some patients with viral pneumonia developed complications. “

The doctor added: “The death rate is quite low. In addition, 25 patients were admitted for dengue, including 10 children and some were also admitted for malaria. However, no one died from these illnesses in the hospital.”

Its been now over a month since Uttar Pradesh has been witnessing severe cases of viral outbreaks and dengue claiming several lives and infecting hundreds of people. Several districts of Uttar Pradesh including Firozabad and Lucknow are the worst affected followed by Ghaziabad, Prayagraj among others.

Earlier, State Health Minister Jai Pratap Singh blamed the officials for the loopholes in the overall health system causing the major outbreak in the state.

Besides UP, the states which have reported dengue cases in the past month include Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana.

Meanwhile, a high-level meeting by the Central Government on Saturday saw discussions on the emerging threat of Serotype-2 dengue cases. An alert has also been issued to all the states and union territories about a hike in dengue cases.