The health department’s strategy to concentrate its anti-dengue drive in only Patharibagh area of the State Capital and ignore other areas could backfire as the city has many proven hotspots of the disease.
Patharibagh came into the focus of the state health machinery when on Sunday, 22 people were found positive for the disease on a single day. Following the reports of the dengue outbreak in the area, the State Chief Minister Harish Rawat visited the affected households and ordered the health department to ensure all possible measure to control the disease.
A harried district health department is concentrating all its energies in the 250 square meters area since then. Teams of the department are camping permanently in the area and the department has done door to door surveys in the area. Apart from door to door surveys many rounds of fogging has also been undertaken in the area. The doctors of the state health service and that of Mahant Indiresh hospital are organising daily camps in the area for the suspected patients of Dengue.
It is a common knowledge that the city has many areas which are considered as hotspots of the dengue considering high incidences of the disease in the past. These hotspots are Bhagat Singh Colony, Sanjay colony, Purani Basti, D l Road and the colonies situated near Bindal and Rispana rivers.
In the year 2014 more than 80 percent of the total dengue cases were reported from Bhagat Singh Colony alone. “It is surprising that the health department is ignoring such areas where dengue is reported in large number in every season. It appears that the department is awe struck with reports of sudden spurt in number of cases in the area and visit of Chief Minister but it should also be proactively concentrating on other areas failing which we can witness a surge in dengue cases from other areas too,’’ warned one of a medical officer.
The Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of Dehradun, Dr Y S Thapliyal accepted that the department is more active in Patharibagh and surrounding areas. He however added that the department is on an alert mode everywhere and claimed that no area of the city is being ignored.