Dengue hits 11 at Nagpur's GMCH; boy, 8, dies of the disease in Solapur's Mohol taluka

Dengue is spreading rapidly in Maharashtra, with the situation in Nagpur and Solapur particularly worrying. In Nagpur, doctors, medical students and nursing trainees at the very medical college that people turn to for saving lives have been struck by the disease. In Solapur district's Mohol taluka, dengue has killed an eight-year-old boy.

At the Government Medical College and Hospital in Nagpur, known as Medical, 11 people have tested positive for dengue in September and October. Two of the cases are from September and nine from October. Those who tested positive include intern doctors, junior resident doctors, medical students and nursing trainees.

The picture in the city is not good either. Nagpur city alone reported 128 new dengue patients in October, and the total number of patients has now reached 193.

In Solapur, an eight-year-old boy died of dengue during treatment in Begampur village of Mohol taluka. He studied in Class 2 at a Zilla Parishad school. The untimely death of so young a child has plunged the whole village into mourning.

Villagers have made a serious allegation that even after the child's death, the administration has neither carried out fogging to kill mosquitoes in the village nor made any other preventive arrangements. There is sharp anger among the villagers over this.

Residents have also expressed deep resentment over the growing stench and filth in the village. In view of the cases in Nagpur and Solapur, it is being said that the health department needs to take strict steps immediately. Meanwhile, the administration is appealing to citizens not to let water collect around their homes and in their localities, and to maintain cleanliness.