Do not be surprised if you find a team of State health department knocking at your door for fumigating your house to get rid of mosquitoes, because the health department officials have changed their strategy to deal with mosquitoes menace in wake of the dengue threat. After a prolonged brainstorming led by Principal Secretary Health Om Prakash in a video conferencing session it was decided that instead of fumigating the streets, the department should focus on houses in affected areas as fogging in the streets cause the mosquitoes to take shelter in homes.
Stung by the rising incidences of dengue in the State the PS took a meeting of Chief Medical Officers (CMO) and City Health officers of Dehradun, Haridwar, Udham Singh Nagar and Nainital Districts via video conferencing on Monday and instructed them to take effective measures to prevent spread of diseases like dengue, malaria, viral fever and typhoid.
In the meeting, the PS held detailed discussions with the health officials on the challenges they are facing in their fight against the menace of dengue. He said that strict monitoring of dengue-affected people should be done. Om Prakash said that the health officials should regularly provide the data of platelets available in the blood banks of their districts and strictly monitor the anti dengue drive.
It was decided to organise September 25 as blood donation day and undertake a campaign to sensitize people about preventive measures they should adopt to stop the menace of the disease which includes ensuring that the children are attending the schools in full sleeved shirts. The education department has issued a directive to all the school heads to hold sessions in the morning assemblies where the students are informed about the preventive measure for Dengue.
The children in these sessions are asked to ensure that the vector of Dengue – Tiger mosquito – does not breed in the vicinity of their homes. The CS ordered that special sanitation week should be observed in which small ditches which act as breeding grounds for mosquitoes are filled. He said 20-30 beds in all the hospitals should be earmarked for dengue patients and they must have facility of mosquito nets. It was decided that help of self help groups should be taken in the massive drive against the disease.
The PS said that the potential areas of dengue menace should be earmarked and extensive fogging accompanied with sanitation drive should be undertaken in the houses.
The PS ordered the Director General (DG) of Health Services to ensure that the test cards for dengue are available in sufficient numbers in all the affected areas. The DG health Dr R P Bhatt and Chief City Health Officer Nitin Bhadoria were present during the conferencing.