District health officials met at the office of Chief Medical Officer (CMO) on Tuesday and discussed the measures to prevent the dreaded dengue from becoming an epidemic. The Director General (DG) Medical Health, Dr GS Joshi made a surprise visit in the meeting considering the gravity of the situation.
Addressing the meeting, the DG said, it is better to take preventive action for the disease than to treat it after it spreads. He asked the officials of the district to make a coordinated effort to destroy any mosquitoes and their larvae. It was decided that the Municipal Corporation should undertake an intensive fogging of the streets and colonies of the affected areas. The Asha health workers were directed to visit every house of their locality and ensure that the water in the objects like coolers is drained out. These workers would also tell people about the methods to control the larvae of the mosquito.
The CMO, Dr BS Jangpangi told The Pioneer that the department is planning to control the disease by destroying the breeding grounds of the mosquito. He advised that people should not allow the water to collect in and around their houses and where draining of water is not possible a film of kerosene or some other oil should be spread over the water to destroy the larvae. Jangpangi further advised that as Aedes Aezypti the Tiger Mosquito bites people during the day time only, they should wear full sleeved cloths and shocks to prevent the mosquito bite.
He said that the season is very conducive for rapid growth of mosquito which lays about 1,200 eggs at a time and 400 -500 larvae can emerge from these eggs which takes a week’s time to hatch. The mosquito infected with virus thus can increase its number exponentially thus infecting large number of people in short span of time.
The department swung into action after ten cases of Dengue were reported in the city recently. The departmental survey showed that eight out of these ten patients did not travel outside the city which indicated that the virus is active in the city. To make things alarming all the cases were reported from different parts of the city which indicated that the virus is active in many localities.
The meeting was attended by State Programe Officer Dr Kiran Bisht, the Deputy Chief Medical Officers (DCMO), Block Medical Officers, Senior City Health Officer Dr RP Singh of Municipal Corporation, District Surveillance Officer Dr SS Kandari, Epidemiologist Dr DK Juneja and Asha felicitators of the district. The Asha felicitators would take the meetings of Asha workers of their areas for the preventive measures of the disease. To increase the number of people involved in the drive against Dengue the CMO has convened a meeting private hospitals on Wednesday.