Dengue situation in Bengal is serious but not alarming: CM Adhikari

Kolkata, Sep 2 (IANS): West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari on Tuesday gave a message to the people of the state, requesting them not to panic about the dengue situation amid continued heavy downpour, and also said that the situation, though serious, is not highly alarming.

The Chief Minister chaired a high-level meeting on Tuesday involving ministers and bureaucrats of different state government departments and the administrators of 21 urban civic bodies in the state, to work out a strategy involving multiple government departments to combat the dengue situation in the state.

Speaking to the media persons at the end of the meeting, he said that the number of dengue-affected people in West Bengal during the current and ongoing monsoons, though high, is much less compared to what the figure was during the monsoons during the previous year.

According to him, while the figure of the total-dengue affected people till the end of August 2025 was 7,600, the figure in the same period in 2025 is around 4,000. “However, we are not taking any chances. The situation will be monitored till November this year. Even mild fevers should not be ignored, and the facility of free tests should be availed. Even the family members of those who are currently dengue positive will be monitored,” the Chief Minister said.

He said that liquid larvicide has been made available to kill dengue mosquito larvae.

Speaking on the occasion, he once again issued an appeal to hospital authorities and doctors not to suppress any dengue-positive case or underreport the number of affected people.

“Do not hide anything. There is nothing there to hide. If there is dengue, it will definitely be dealt with. There is no reason to be afraid when doctors write dengue. If it is dengue, they will write dengue. If not, they will not write,” said CM Adhikari.

The West Bengal Health Department has already identified five districts as the most dengue-prone in the state. These five districts are the state capital of Kolkata, Howrah, North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas and Murshidabad.

The continued weather unpredictability and rainfall have kept the state health department most worried, as dengue cases and dengue-related deaths have increased in certain districts.

–IANS

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