KOLKATA: A 35-year-old Kolkata Police constable from Sukantanagar, on the fringes of Salt Lake, succumbed to dengue at a private hospital a few days ago, taking the death count from the deadly disease in the Bidhannagar Municipal area to 4.Samir Mandal had been admitted to the hospital for abdominal surgery, which turned out successful. Immediately afterwards, however, he tested positive for dengue. Hospital sources said his condition deteriorated very fast. His platelet count plunged sharply and he suffered a severe haemorrhage. He breathed his last on November 10.The death certificate issued by the hospital mentions dengue as the cause.Scores in the neighbourhood were suffering from dengue and little effort has been made to check the spread of the virus, Mandal’s family members alleged. “The surgery had gone off well and he was otherwise perfectly healthy. It was the dengue infection that killed him. Almost every home in our area has dengue patients; some have more than one. The situation is extremely scary,” said a member of the Mandal family.Local residents said quite a number of persons in the locality have been suffering from dengue of late.Locals said there was an under-construction building that had become a breeding ground for mosquitoes. “There has been a spurt of dengue after Puja,” said a resident. Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation MMiC (health) Pranay Roy, who visited the spot on Wednesday, said no mosquito larva had been found in the locality. “Our civic workers are regularly spraying larvacide,” he said.

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