Stung by spurt in cases of dengue in areas which also house many schools, the district health department has started a drive to sensitise school children on dengue. The district health department has so far reported 11 cases of the disease in Dehradun and most of the them are concentrated in Raipur road and Adhoiwala localities. Apart from housing many schools, these localities are in vicinity of Dalanwala area where majority of famous private schools of Doon valley are situated. The district vector borne diseases officer, Subhash Joshi said that a team of health department would start visiting schools in the affected areas from Thursday. He said that school students would be taught about methods of preventing spread of the diseases. Joshi said that use of audio and video clips would be made during the visits to school.
It is worth mentioning here that school children donning summer uniforms are sitting prey for Tiger Mosquitoes (Aedes Aezypti) which are the vector of dengue as they strike during day time when children are in the school. During this time of the year the children usually wear half sleeved shirts, skirts /shorts as part of their summer uniforms.
Meanwhile the health department has intensified fogging in the affected areas. The Chief Medical Officer of Dehradun, Dr S K Gupta visited the Government Doon Medical College (GDMC) hospital on Wednesday and inspected the isolation ward for the patients of dengue. The CMO said that eight bed isolation wards have been set up in GDMC and Coronation hospitals.