Six-bed dengue ward in Ganjam

Berhampur(Odisha): Amid spread of dengue in several places of Odisha, the Ganjam administration has decided to open a six-bed dengue ward in the district headquarters hospital here.

"We have decided to set up a separate ward with six beds for the convenience of the patients," said Chief District Medical Officer (CDMO) Mrutunjay Mishra.

The laboratory near ADMO (Public Health) office will conduct the test for confirming dengue cases, he added.

The facility is already available in MKCG Medical College and Hospital, where a separate ward with 10 beds has been set up.

On Saturday, Ganjam district Collector P C Chaudhury directed the health officials to ensure that no government hospital in the district turned away dengue patients. "The state government recently sanctioned the necessary machine and kits to conduct Elisa test. A trained technician will be posted exclusively for it," the CDMO said.

Additional district medical officer (Medicine) Saroj Mishra said the City Hospital has so far not received a single dengue patient. "Doctors of medicine department will be in-charge of the dengue ward," he said.

As many as 13 dengue cases have been detected in the district so far. "All of them have been cured. While three cases were indigenous, others contracted the vector borne disease from Bengaluru (4), Hyderabad (2) and one each from Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Kolkata and Puttaparthi," the CDMO added.