Cantonment hospital can't tackle dengue fever

Secunderabad: While people in other parts of the city have government hospitals where they can undergo treatment for dengue and typhoid, the residents living in Secunderabad Cantonment just do not have the facility. The only major hospital in the area – Cantonment General Hospital – does not have the equipment nor the staff to treat dengue patients.

Dr Manju Rani, Medical Superintendent, Cantonment General Hospital, said, "For the last few days, more than 100 fever cases are reported at the hospital, but we do not have a fully-equipped lab to diagnose dengue or for other vector-borne diseases. We are referring the patients to Fever Hospital."

As per District Medical and Health Officer (DMHO), Dr J Venkat, in the recent days, as many as 21 cases of dengue were reported from SCB area and two patients – Ruthika (5) and T John Elisha Winston (13) – succumbed to this disease. Even after such incidents, no follow-up measures have been taken by the SCB to redress the situation at the hospital.

However, speaking about the outbreak of vector-borne disease, Mahender Akula, sanitary inspector, Secunderabad Cantonment Board, said, "Keeping the situation in mind we have undertaken extra sanitation work to control vector-borne diseases in the area. Three fogging machines have been pressed into service since Saturday.

Fogging is being done twice a day. Each team with 18 members are engaged in fogging operation in all the 8 wards." Residents, however, allege no fogging operation has begun yet and are suffering due to garbage heaps on roads, bad state of nalas and stagnated water on roads. Several complaints to the SCB have fallen on deaf ears, said Vijay Kumar, a resident of Laxmi Nagar.

"For many days near our area, sewage water has been overflowing and due to that reason, mosquito menace has increased. Also, many locals from our area are suffering from viral fevers and many times we have complained to SCB to conduct fogging operation but no action is taken," said Rama Devi, a resident of PNT Colony. "Daily more than 80 cases of fever patients are being treated at our Dawakhana for a fortnight," said Dr Srilaxmi of Basti Dawakhana at Gunrock.