Amritsar vegetable trader's death due to 'dengue' creates panic
Amritsar, November 17
Even as the frequency of daily dengue cases has subsided, Deepak Singh, 44, a wholesale vegetable trader at Vallah Sabzi Mandi, reportedly died of dengue recently. In case the disease is medically confirmed, it would be the first death from dengue in the city this year. This has led to panic among people working in the mandi.
As per the Civil Surgeon’s office, 603 patients have been diagnosed with dengue till date. As many as six patients were detected today.
Charanjit Singh Batra, president, Fruit and Vegetable Merchants Union, said the deceased was his nephew and had two daughters. He added that no doubt he was suffering from fatty liver but it was dengue which cost him his life. It was on November 11 that he contracted dengue and was declared dead on November 14.
He added that a large number of people trading and working in the mandi were afflicted with dengue this time. “Over a week ago, my son Prabhjot Singh was down with the mosquito-borne disease,” he said, adding that there is no shop in the mandi where people have not been afflicted with the disease.
At a time when the threat of dengue looms large over city, the constant dumping of rotten vegetables and fruits and their slack lifting poses danger to people in the mandi. Shopkeepers said lack of hygiene and cleanliness were a major cause of worry.
The shopkeepers said men and machines engaged in lifting refuse are inadequate. In the past, they had written to the authorities concerned many times for cleanliness at the mandi but to no avail. Heaps of rotten vegetables and puddles can be seen at different spots in the entire market. Now, re-carpeting of some roads has created a difference between the road and ground level but a shower is enough to leave behind puddles of water.
Civil Surgeon Dr Vijay Kumar said as per the norms, a patient can be said to be suffering from dengue only after the Mac-Elisa test. It is a qualitative test for detection of the dengue virus. Whether those who died had undergone this test or not is required to be known to confirm them as dengue cases.
