Hiteshri Patel 1 , Sukesha Gamit 2 , Rahul Damor 3 , Chintan Gamit 4 , Keshav Vaishnav 5 , J. K. Kosambiya 6
BACKGROUND During September 2014, increased number of fever cases were reported from the New Civil Hospital Campus, Surat (NCHS), Gujarat State. An entomological and epidemiological investigation of this outbreak was conducted to ascertain the nature and cause of the outbreak. METHODOLOGY Epidemiological surveillance of fever cases was carried out in the New Civil Hospital Campus during the period of 3 rd to 20th September 2014. House to house survey was carried out to find out the fever cases in three rounds. A person who has a history of fever with or without other symptoms within last one week is considered as a fever case. Entomological survey was carried out for the presence of potential and active breeding sites of mosquito. Resting collections of mosquitoes were done by a team of the Surat Municipal Corporation with mouth aspirators. OBSERVATIONS Total 1875 population was surveyed in each round. Among them, 79 (4.2%) cases had a fever within last one week. Mean age of fever cases was 24.5±12.8 years. Among total fever cases, 49.5% cases had viral fever whereas 27.8% cases had confirmed dengue fever. One death was reported due to dengue fever. The HI, CI and BI were 6.55%, 5.07% and 7.31% for all species of mosquitoes. The majority of species in active breeding sites were Aedes mosquito (82.7%). There was a huge reduction in the potential and active breeding sites after application of mosquito control measures. RECOMMENDATIONS Routine survey, source reduction strategies and possible control methods need to be organized regularly to avoid future outbreaks.
