Photo: Collected-
Metropolis Desk-
Major worries are being raised about adenovirus in West Bengal. Mamata Banerjee, the chief minister, stated on Monday that 19 people have already perished as a result of adenovirus, including six children. She also asked people to resume wearing face masks in order to stop the threat.
Amid the rising number of child deaths, the state’s health department has also cancelled leaves of all its staffers, an official told PTI. The department, in a notification also said that, “All are to be present at their stations considering the present situation in the state. Fever clinics are to be kept functioning on 24X7 basis,” reports mint.
However, as per IANS report, there have been claims of 48 deaths in just 11 days. Whereas general secretary of the Association of Health Service Doctors, Dr Manas Gumta has alleged that the West Bengal government “underreported” the number of deaths caused by infection of the virus.
The doctor also raised concerns and said that the situation has now turned serious. “All the children are not getting beds in the hospital. CCU is not available to them, the overall situation has turned serious now,” he told news agency ANI. He further claimed that the reports of deaths that we have now (Not of the government), over 100 children have already died. This means the situation has become tensed now.”
He said that out of 6-7 pediatric deaths, 30 per cent showed Adenovirus symptoms.
Slamming the Bengal government, Dr Gumta also said that the preparations, done by the West Bengal government to tackle the spread of Adenovirus are inadequate and that it has not learned a lesson from Covid.
“Adenovirus has come after Covid, and the government has still not apprised us regarding preparations which are leading to children getting infected and scores of deaths,” he added.
The BJP in Bengal staged a protest in the state assembly accusing the the state government of not doing enough to check the spread of Adenovirus that left several children dead. Talking to reporters, Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari said, “We wanted a discussion in the House on Adenovirus. It was not allowed, and so we had to resort to protests. The state had been trying to hide facts and figures about the number of cases and deaths.”
