KOLKATA: Five dengue patients dying in a fortnight—the authorities are yet to declare the official toll—has made the KMC top brass jittery.According to some officials, any laxity on the part of the civic vector control department might pave the way for an epidemic-like situation. Though the KMC health department started its anti-dengue drive as early as January this year and seemed to be in control till the fag end of August, a sudden spurt in the number of dengue cases, followed by five successive deaths reported from different parts of the city, has taken the health officials by surprise. “We are worried about the recent spurt in the dengue cases across the city. This is the time of the year, when erratic rainfall creates a favourable condition for dengue to spread fast. If we fail to prevent it now, particularly in the dengue-prone areas, the disease may take a turn that could be really difficult for us to fight against,” said a KMC health department official.A preliminary survey by the KMC revealed that some of the areas, which reported a record number of dengue patients from September last year, were repeating a similar scene this year, too. One of the dengue-prone areas is Muraripukur in north Kolkata. After a 35-year-old dengue patient from Muraripukur died on Wednesday, a team from the KMC health department went to the spot and found that several other residents from the area had also tested positive for the fever.Similarly, the KMC vector control department officials have reasons to worry about areas, such as Cossipore , Shyampukur, Burrabazar, Girish Park, Bidhan Sarani, Elliot Road, Tiljala, Ballygunge, Chetla, Behala and Tollygunge. After a death of a woman at Parnasree in Behala, a civic team found several breeding spots of Aedes aegypti , the mosquito that spreads the dreaded disease, in the neighbourhood.Left Front councillors in the KMC on Thursday alleged civic authorities’ inaction in preventing dengue. RSP councillor Debasish Mukherjee and CPM councillor Mritunjoy Chakraborty even claimed the KMC health department was concealing facts about the number of dengue cases and deaths.

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