Apart from Firozabad, another 15 people have died in UP's Mathura district so far
More than 60 people, including 50 children have died 'dengue haemorrhagic fever' - a severe form of the dengue virus - in western Uttar Pradesh over the past 10 days. The majority of those cases - 50, including 40 children - were reported from Firozabad district and surrounding areas.
Union Health Ministry sources have told NDTV that more than 50 per cent of the approximately 200 samples collected from Firozabad and nearby areas had tested positive for dengue.
Sources also said authorities are treating the rash of cases in Firozabad as a "dengue outbreak".
"A team from the WHO (World Health Organization) told me this is 'haemorrhagic dengue', which is very dangerous... platelet count of children collapses suddenly and there is a lot of bleeding," Chandra Vijay Singh, the Firozabad district magistrate, said earlier.
A six-member team from the NCDC, or National Centre for Disease Control - consisting of entomologists and experts in vector-borne diseases - has been rushed to the affected areas.
The team is expected to submit its report Monday.
"The central medical team, under the leadership of Tushar N Nale from the National Centre for Disease Control, visited us to look at the situation," Alok Kumar Sharma, the Officiating Superintendent of the government medical college at Firozabad, told news agency PTI yesterday.
Apart from Firozabad, other districts in western UP - like Mathura and Agra - have also reported an increase in cases, and hospitals are overflowing with patients suffering viral fever and dehydration.
In Mathura, which is 60 km from Firozabad, 11 children died in 15 days - all from one village. The state government said the deaths were due to vector-borne diseases, primarily dengue.
Fifteen people have died in the district so far.
Visuals from a government hospital in Hapur, about 100 km from Delhi, showed a paediatric (child) outpatient department filled with patients - mostly young children accompanied by their mothers.
Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has hit out at the state government. On Twitter, she claimed over 100 people had died from viral fever across the state, and questioned if Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had learned anything from "the horrific consequences of disastrous Covid management".
Yogi Adityanath has visited Firozabad and said all measures will be taken to help patients. The district's top health official was transferred out after the Chief Minister's visit.
In addition to 'dengue hemorrhagic fever', cases of scrub typhus fever, or bush typhus have also been confirmed from tested samples. This disease is caused by the bite if infected chiggers (larval mites) that can be found in bushes and scrub vegetation.
With input from PTI