Over 30 suspected cases of dengue were reported on the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-B) campus in Powai in the last two months.
Of these, 23 cases were recorded in July alone, a month when the rest of the city also saw an increase in the number of dengue cases.
In June, the IIT-B hospital inside the Powai campus saw only eight cases of suspected dengue, a disease spread by the sting of mosquitoes.
In comparison, the hospital treated only three cases of malaria, another vector-borne disease, in June. The hospital treated two malaria cases in July.
The diseases data was last compiled on August 5 for the civic records.
Authorities at the premier engineering institute said they were taking extreme care to prevent the occurrence of dengue and other diseases on campus.
The BMC also distributed information leaflets to create awareness on dengue in the IIT hostels in July.
The public health office on the campus also issued a general advisory stating that there should not be any open accumulation of fresh water anywhere on the campus, said sources.
For the first time on the campus, the public health officer also started maintaining a register with names of people who had develop fever, claimed a doctor from the IIT-B hospital.
One of the hostel students who contracted the disease claimed that their hostels were generally mosquito-free, but he might have contracted it due to the waterlogging on the campus.
He claimed that the maintenance personnel had been cleaning the campus frequently after the reported cases, especially the area where there were patients.
“Dengue can be confirmed only after the disease is over,” Dr Nisha Shah, chief medical officer at the IIT-B hospital, said. “The tests can be positive even for a patient suffering from typhoid, but it can still be determined through particular marks or rashes. Two years ago, we did have two confirmed cases. However, this year there were no confirmed cases.”
IIT-B dean of student affairs UA Yajnik said that institute had not issued any campus-wide advisory as the disease itself was locality specific.
Source: http: //www.article.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-08-14/mumbai/41409001_1_dengue-case-iit-b-23-cases