RAIPUR: Two more youths died of dengue on Monday - taking the unofficial toll to 24, even as Chhattisgarh government has claimed that only seven patients died of the vector-borne disease in the last month.19-year-old Chhaya Vaishnav and 23-year-old Mahesh Mahanand from Bhilai were the latest victims of dengue.Chhaya, a resident of Shankar Nagar locality, was suffering from high fever since last week and was admitted to Durg district hospital. After her condition deteriorated, the hospital authorities shifted her to a private hospital in Raipur on August 18. She died early Monday morning. Mahesh, a resident of Shaheed Veernarayan Singh Nagar area of Khursipar died after he was shifted to a Raipur hospital on August 18. He was initially admitted to a private hospital in Bhilai, and later referred to Raipur.Protesting the rising cases of dengue deaths, residents of Shankar Nagar gathered at Chhawani Chowk and raised slogans against Bhilai Municipal Corporation. The residents demanded strict action against the civic body for negligence. They blocked the Chhawani-Nandani route, triggering traffic jams. Police personnel reached the spot to control the situation. Talking about the dengue situation in the state, director of health services R Prasanna told TOI that out of 1,556 suspected cases of dengue, only 520 were reported positive after examination of blood serum samples in Chhattisgarh since January 1, 2018. As many as 470 positive cases were reported in the last one month in Durg district out of 668 suspected dengue cases. Raipur recorded 21 positive cases and 505 suspected dengue cases since January 1 this year.The official said that it is confirmed seven people died due to dengue in the last one month. He said that many sectors of Bhilai Steel Plant township and Khursipar area of the steel city are affected by the vector-borne diseases. To know the type of dengue virus , the department has sent seven samples to ICMR-NIRTH, Jabalpur, where type-3 dengue was tested positive. The official said that control and prevention operations are underway and Durg district health department surveyed 75,354 houses in addition to fogging the localities, creating awareness among public.Treatment of Dengue affected people is available in all government and private hospitals of Raipur, Durg and Bilaspur while free of cost test facilities have been provided in all districts of the state, he said."The rules of Sanjeevani Kosh have been relaxed for the Durg district patients who do not have RSBY and MSBY card and who are undergoing treatment while patients having RSBY and MSBY smart card have been provided free of charge treatment. The health department has made seven sentinel surveillance hospitals to medical college hospitals of Raipur, Bastar, Rajnandgaon , Raigarh, Sarguja, Korba and Bilaspur," he said.

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