Chennai: Dengue is the most rued disease at the moment in the State. With such a vector borne ailment finding its way into the city, News Today spoke to the Zonal Health of Officer of zone seven, Dr Sheela, to know about the current measures that are being undertaken in the locality.
“There have been around 34 suspected cases that were resported in Ambattur and all of them are stable,” she started saying, adding that a lot of work goes into preventing an epidemic from breaking out.
The numbers are got from various sources including private hospitals but the major source according to Dr Sheela is the Integrated Diseases Surveilance Project or IDSP in short. Apart from that, the zonal health team also looks into school absentee list to check for any possible cases of children being affected by dengue.
“We start our work everyday by 6 am and around 12 workers are sent to each division. (Ambattur has 15 such divisions). Fogging, spraying of mosquito repellent takes place apart from door-to-door inspection,” Sheela said.
If a person is identified to be affected, then spraying is done again within the 500 metre radius, she said.
The zonal health team also creates awareness among people by providing health education and teaching residents the dos and don’ts. “Stickers are pasted over compound walls for even the passerby to get to know what s/he must do,” said Sheela.
The officials team also goes to schools and gives students demo to create awareness. They also head out to factories to check for cleanliness.
“Ambattur has many factories. We find that some are maintained very well while others are not. We impose fine on those who have faltered. But the fine is not to intimidate them. It is just to make them realise what their negligence might lead to,” Dr Sheela said.
The official team also takes into account clearing hyacinths from nearby waterbodies and now have mobile medical vans. “We also scout for vacant lands in the area and we place oil balls that repel mosquitoes from breeding there,” she said.
Nilavembu water is also being distributed to people, officials said, but Ramalingam, a resident of West Balaj Nagar says otherwise. “The officials do not have sufficient stock of nilavembu powder. How that happened is qustionable. Although work is going on and authorities are going door-to-door to instruct people, it is sad that garbage clearance is not taken seriously. That contributes to increasing mosquito count,” he said.