Tuesday, September 13 2005 19:44 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Kolkata: Despite the prevalence of dengue in Kolkata's three wards in a virulent form, city mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya today (Sept 13, 2005) maintained his stand that it had not taken an epidemic turn as observed by state's Health Minister.

''It is an outbreak of dengue, which has not assumed an epidemic proportions in our city'', the Mayor, heading the CPI (M)-led Left Front ruling board in the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, told sources at KMC headquarters in Kolkata.

He, however, admitted that 70 per cent of Kolkata had been found to be dengue-prone, adding that the mosquito-borne disease had so far claimed seven lives and afflicted 979 in the metropolis, whose blood samples tested positive.

Health department sources yesterday said that 1,221 persons in the metropolis had been affected by dengue.

Meanwhile, number of dengue victims in West Bengal crossed 1,900-mark, with more cases reported in the city's Rajabazar and Beliaghata areas, even as the death toll in the state was still officially put at 18.

The Mayor said that the civic body had already taken adequate steps to combat both dengue and malaria, while a ward-basis map was prepared to identify the areas vulnerable to both the diseases.

Meanwhile, an experts' team of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Pune, which visited the affected wards recently, expressed satisfaction with the way the KMC had been handling the dengue outbreak, Bhattacharya said.

The team, headed by Dr Rajendra Bhat, visited the dengue-hit wards as also the hospitals where treatment of the victims was on.