Concerned over rising cases of dengue in the fringe areas, the district health department has decided to expand its action plan, which was confined to the urban areas of the steel city to the rural pockets in East Singhbhum. The decision was taken after the surveillance agency found that suspected cases of dengue in the rural areas were also rising. The number of dengue positive cases reported so far is 77.
East Singhbhum district civil surgeon, SK Jha said as they decided to extend the reach of the dengue action plan after they have found the suspected dengue cases from Patamda and Dhalbhumgarh blocks in the district.
“We have received information from the health team posted at the Patamda and Dhalbhumgarh block that cases are being reported and we have been instructed about launching of the dengue action plan in their respective blocks from Wednesday. We have received two suspected cases of dengue from each of these blocks,” said Jha.The civil surgeon said the drive of dengue action plan will continue in the city alongside the drive in the rural areas.
“According to our findings the 20 new dengue positive cases that had been reported from the city on Friday were not from the localities from where earlier cases of the dengue had been reported. The places where we carried out the drive is under control. Therefore we have decided to start the dengue action plan at the new localities in the city from where the fresh cases of dengue-infected cases were reported,” said Jha.
According to Jha, the dengue action plan had been carried out at Kitadih, Harharguttu in Bagbera, Bhuiyandih in Sitaramdera, Kitadih, Dimna Bustee in Mango, Bagunnagar in Sidhgora,. He said the new area where the drive will start from tomorrow include Barinagar in Telco, Ramnagar and Shastrinagar in Kadma, Khuntakdih in Sonari, and Oraon Bustee in Sitaramdera.
Sahir Pall, district officer for the Centre’s Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP), said they have sent over a dozen blood samples to the MGM Medical College’s microbiology department for confirmation.” We are keeping a vigil on the cases. Monday and today being official holidays we have not got any test report from the medical college. The number of dengue positive case is 77 as we had mentioned on Friday,” said Pall, adding that two suspected cases of dengue have been reported from Patamda and Dhalbhumgarh blocks.
City based Dr R K Agrawal said cleanliness is the need of the hour. “We need to understand that mosquitoes that carry the virus of dengue do not come from outside, rather they generate from the household things like flower-pots, coolers water, rejected tyre kept on the roof top or in the corner of the garden. So we must ensure that there is no such place where water is stagnant for sometime”.