A team of doctors constituted by the state government will visit the southern fringes of the city where a “mystery fever” has reportedly afflicted hundreds of residents.

The experts in vector-borne diseases, including doctors from the National Institute of Communicable Diseases, will visit pockets of Budge Budge on Thursday. The team may also visit parts of Bishnupur, Mograhat, Falta and Joynagar, where dengue, chikungunya and the “mystery” fever, with symptoms different from the other two diseases, have broken out.

“Since the fever has not affected many people, the victims are struggling to develop antibodies after the virus enters their body. We will have to chalk out a blueprint to prevent the fever from spreading,” said a senior officer of the state health department.

Senior health officials met the chief medical officers (health) of Howrah, North 24-Parganas and South 24-Parganas and representatives of the School of Tropical Medicine and the Indian Council of Medical Research at Sasthya Bhavan on Wednesday.

“We discussed ways to get blood test reports faster from the School of Tropical Medicine and the Indian Council of Medical Research, so that intervention can be immediate. It was decided that more reagents and other necessities would be sent to the institutes so that the tests can be done faster,” added the officer.

“We have insisted that the reports reach us within 72 hours of the samples being sent to the institutes. Once the fever is identified, the patient must be isolated to prevent the virus from spreading through mosquitoes,” said Sacchidananda Sarkar, the chief medical officer (health) of South 24-Parganas.

The meeting was partly prompted by another case of dengue in the city.

Ishika Saha, 17, was admitted to BR Singh Hospital with dengue, taking the number of Calcuttans affected with the disease to 35. Three of the patients have died.