TEAM HERALD
MARGAO: Mystery shrouds the source of the dengue fever which affected the four Margao ESI hospital employees, with the health and hospital authorities resorting to a virtual blame game over the source.
While ESI hospital in-charge, Dr Vishwajit Faldessai said the source of the dengue fever has not been ascertained, Curtorim Primary Health Centre, Dr Rajendra Borkar felt that the ESI Hospital premises might be the suspected source of the fever given that four employees of the hospital are affected by dengue. “Two of the employees are from Telaulim, while the third one, a staff nurse hails from Mandopa-Navelim. The fourth victim was staying in the hospital staff quarters. This indicates that the source could be the hospital premises,” Dr Borkar added.
On the other hand, Dr Vishwajit Faldessai said, “as of now, we are not sure about the source since two of the victims hail from Navelim area.” Besides, he pointed out that none of the construction workers engaged in the construction activity on the new hospital building has reported any fever cases in recent times.
Meanwhile, Dr Faldessai disclosed that he has issued a circular to the hospital staff, besides the construction workers to get tested for dengue if they had fever during the last 8-10 days. He said the Margao Urban Health Centre has carried out fogging of the hospital premises after the employees tested positive for dengue. “The Urban Health Centre will take up fogging of the hospital campus every alternative day as a precautionary measure,” he added.
When his attention was drawn to the water logged bottles lying abandoned behind the hospital premises, Dr Faldessai said, “We have taken immediate action after the health authorities intimated us about the unused bottles. We have also told the labour contractor to carry out spraying very often in the campus as a matter of abundant caution,” he said.
