A special secretary to the governor and at least two others living in the Raj Bhavan compound are down with dengue despite the civic body's claim that preventive measures are taken at the VIP address round the year.
Almost a week ago, governor M.K. Narayanan had expressed displeasure over the authorities' delay in trying to contain the dengue outbreak.
"D.K. Gautam, the special secretary to the governor, and two children of his (Gautam's) personal assistant are dengue positive," said P.S. Mahajan, the resident physician at Raj Bhavan. "There are unconfirmed reports of several others suffering from fever. But they have not been reported to me."
The special secretary, who lives in his quarters on the Raj Bhavan premises, is admitted to Calcutta Medical Research Institute. The governor visited him at the Alipore hospital on Monday.
"Gautam has tested positive in the NS1 antigen test, a non-confirmatory scan for dengue. Time has not come for the confirmatory test (MAC-ELISA)," a hospital official said.
The two children of Gautam's personal assistant, Ajoy Nayek, are admitted in the same hospital with dengue.
"My 11-year-old daughter Aparna and 20-year-old son Arnab have dengue. I hope the Calcutta Municipal Corporation takes necessary steps to contain the outbreak at Raj Bhavan," Nayek told Metro.
"IgG and IgM are reactive for both Aparna and Arnab Nayek," said Chirantan Basu, the deputy medical superintendent at Calcutta Medical Research Institute.
Experts said the presence of the IgG antibody was an indication that the patient had been infected with dengue earlier, too.
Raj Bhavan sources failed to recall any instance of dengue outbreak on the campus. "There have been several cases of malaria but dengue is new," said a Raj Bhavan official.
The governor's visit to the hospital prompted a team of civic officials to inspect Raj Bhavan on Monday. The team included chief entomologist Debasish Biswas, chief municipal health officer T.K. Mukherjee and mayoral council member (health) Atin Ghosh.
"We did not find any larvae on the premises on Monday. There is just one case of dengue from Raj Bhavan," Ghosh said after the visit.
The civic body said preventive measures were taken regularly at Raj Bhavan, a VIP zone. "We collect water samples from and fumigate the premises regularly," said an official.
The outbreak in the city had prompted the governor to speak out against the delayed response of the civic authorities. "The situation is now under control but some of the steps could have been taken earlier. Now, these steps are being taken. Okay," he had said on the sidelines of a programme at Victoria Memorial on September 11.