Mamata Banerjee confirms 23 dengue deaths in West Bengal

Confirming that 23 people have died of dengue in West Bengal this year, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said the malarial outbreaks of the 1990s have changed to dengue epidemic now, as the nature of the virus has changed. Addressing an administrative meeting here, Banerjee said deaths due to high fever is nothing new in the state as malignant malaria used to take heavy toll every year in the 1990s and early 2000s in the state.

"So far 23 people have died of dengue.... As the nature of the virus has changed, we are having outbreaks of dengue in the past few years instead of malaria," the chief minister said.

She said 191 deaths had occurred due to malaria in 2001 and 175 deaths in 2005. Asserting she was not taking the dengue outbreak this year lightly by citing past figures, the Trinamool Congress supremo said even one person dies from the vector-borne disease, that has to be prevented.

She urged people not to neglect if the fever persists and get themselves treated at government hospitals. The CM also said the bungalow of the irrigation department here that she visited, was infested with mosquitos possibly due to the presence of a waterbody in front of it.

"I understand this cannot be entirely averted, but please take precautionary steps. This is my plea to everyone, please be careful to keep your neighbourhood clean, use mosquito nets, spray insecticides," she said.

A three-year-old boy died of dengue in Park Circus area of Kolkata pushing the death toll due to the vector-borne disease to 23 since January, state health department sources said on Monday. Over 40,000 people have been affected by dengue in the state since January. The affected districts include North and South 24 Parganas, Howrah and Hooghly.