Dengue tally 42, Panchkula seeks help of RWAs

Amit Bathla

Tribune News Service

Panchkula, September 27

As the dengue tally reached 42 today, the Panchkula Health Department convened a joint meeting of various departments concerned, including the Education Department and the Municipal Corporation, and the representatives of RWAs to strengthen the preventive measures and ensure coordination among various departments to check the spread of the disease.

Three-day campaign

The Health Department will start a ‘three-day anti-dengue campaign’ under which focus will be on a particular area or sector. “On the first day, the RWAs will engage in clearing stagnant water in their localities, followed by source reduction activities by health teams on the second day. The teams of the MC will undertake fogging on the third and last day,” the CMO said, adding that it will be repeated after two weeks.

The CMO, Dr Mukta Kumar, requested all RWAs to participate in the campaign against vector-borne diseases.

“The RWAs should contribute towards dengue-prevention activities by carrying out an inspection in their own homes and those in the localities to check the signs of the vector-borne disease,’’ she said.

The District Education Officer has been requested to sensitise the students coming to schools to the preventive steps.

A formal letter to the district Education Department will be issued from the CMO office soon.

At the meeting, biologist Anita Vasudeva educated the participants about the spread of dengue larvae and what steps be taken to contain it. The number of dengue patients has risen this month, with four cases reported on Monday. Only five cases had been reported till the last week of August.

Shortage of manpower

The three-day activities would need the deployment of several teams of the Health Department as well as the MC. “A shortage of manpower can create hurdles. These activities may not pan out the way we aspire them to,” a senior health official said.

“People will also be urged to participate in a weekly dry day. They will be asked to dry pots, pans, water tanks, flower and animal pot trays on that particular day,” she said.

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