Daijiworld Media Network - Puttur (SP)

Puttur, Jul 7: Innumerable blood samples collected from the people of the taluk suffering from suspected dengue fever have been lying unattended at the government hospital here. One of the important measures undertaken to regulate the spread of dengue, which has been prevalent in all the pockets of the taluk, is to collect the blood samples of the patients who suffer from suspected dengue and get them tested promptly.

Even though it has been made mandatory to collect blood samples from people suffering from acute fever and get them tested at the district laboratory for the presence of dengue virus, the samples so collected are getting piled up at Puttur government hospital. There have been tall claims about the measures being taken to control the disease before it acquires endemic proportions, but in practice, the efforts appear to be falling short of expectations by a big margin.

While people who are well off get their blood samples tested in private laboratories, mostly the poor people seek treatment from the government hospitals. The health department has been claiming that arrangements are in place to collect blood samples from all the government hospitals in the district and get them tested at the district level laboratory in the city.  The hospital authorities here say that the district health department has to collect the samples from all the hospitals. However, since over a week, hundreds of samples have been piling up unattended in the local government hospital and the poor people are anxiously awaiting the results of the tests.

Perhaps the officials have failed to keep up the enthusiasm they showed while making promises to the ministers and legislators, after the meeting with them ended.