Akshay Azad
Jammu, Sept 26: At a time when dengue has spread its tentacles in Jammu and so far 67 cases have been reported, the Directorate of Health Services has reported paucity of dengue kits.
Sources informed Early Times that a total of 67 cases of dengue have been reported in Jammu province, out of which 60 are in Samba district alone, but the dengue kits (NSI ELISA Kit) which were essential to detect dengue cases were not available in Jammu. "National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme Directorate General of Health Services, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare is directly monitoring dengue related cases and has maintained seven surveillance centers across state", sources said.
They further informed that in Jammu province there were six centers viz-a-viz district hospital Udhampur, Rajouri, Poonch, Kathua, Doda and Government Medical College Jammu. "All surveillance centers had one kit each (one kit comprising 96 tests) but with the spurt of dengue in Jammu especially in Bari-Brahmana area of Samba district the demand of kits increased", sources said.
They further said that for using NSI ELISA Kit, the district hospital should have ELISA reader, but except district hospital Udhampur, there was no ELISA reader. "When need at GMC arises, the kits given to district hospital Rajouri, Kathua and Doda were brought to GMC and presently there is no kit available at GMC", sources said.
They further informed that the NSI ELISA Kits only came from Pune and around fifteen days back, an order for purchasing of dengue kits was placed but so far supply has not been made. "All patients of Jammu province are coming to GMC and now the GMC has asked health department to provide dengue kits and Health department is running the affairs by sending kits from one center to GMC", sources said, adding that now only Poonch has one kit available with them.
Astonishingly, Dr. Kartar Chief Medical Officer of district Samba, from where maximum cases of dengue have been reported so far, instead of doing corrective measures or fogging the area, was busy in sensitizing the students of a college on Monday about dengue.
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