SCB gears up to tackle dengue menace

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Cuttack: The Sriram Bhanja Medical College and Hospital (SCBMCH) has geared up measures to tackle the possible outbreak of dengue with the state government declaring it as the nodal centre for the disease in the state.
SCB sources said the state-run referral hospital has received 50-odd dengue positive patients in the past two months, with Khurda recording the highest number of persons afflicted by the vector-borne disease.
“150 beds at SCB’s Ophthalmology department and Trauma Care Unit will be dedicated for the dengue patients. Besides, arrangements will be made for eight special Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds for the patients,” SCB superintendent Prasanna Kumar Debata said while charing a high-level meeting here.
“Since there is no oxygen connection to the Ophthalmology department, 20 ICU beds at the central ICU, which are lying unused, will be used for the purpose,” Debata said.
Medicine department head CBK Mohanty has been made the nodal officer while its associate professor Sri Prasad Mohanty would be the assistant nodal officer, the meeting decided.
The SCB authorities would approach the chief district medical officer (CDMO) seeking 30 staffers for the nodal centre. Besides, doctors from several departments will be roped in for the centre.
Along with dengue, patients may approach the nodal centre with other diseases as well. Then it will not be feasible to advise them to approach other departments. Under such circumstances, doctors from required departments would pitch in at the dengue ward, the meeting resolved.
Meanwhile, the authorities have introduced a few changes in the medical team to tackle the possible outbreak of Nipah virus.
“Earlier, Medicine department associate professor Sri Prasad Mohanty was in-charge of the medical team. With Mohanty being assigned the responsibility of dengue ward, Medicine department associate professor Bijan Patnaik will be the nodal officer of the team to counter Nipah virus,” said a senior SCB doctor who was also present in the meeting.
Pulmonary Medicine department associate professor Thita Mohanty will be the assistant nodal officer of dengue ward. SCB emergency officer Bhubanananda Moharana is the convenor of the medical team.