No effort for dengue prevention in city

Manmeet Singh Gill

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, May 10

While the district administration is conducting back-to-back meetings with officials of various departments to curb malaria and dengue, no efforts on the ground are visible barring awareness programmes.

The instructions of the district administration to spray burnt oil or insecticides in water pools are being ignored as residents of many areas say they have not seen anyone doing the exercise. The mixing of burnt oil and insecticides in pools can prevent mosquito breeding and could be of great help in preventing the spread of malaria and dengue.

However, the failure of the MC in dealing with the situation was quite evident last year when the district had reported a record number of 1,533 dengue patients. Around 80 per cent of the cases were reported from the city area and around 50 per cent cases were from the walled city areas. Non-availability of chemicals with the MC had resulted in a surge of patients to a great extent.

With the density of population more in the city areas, the chances of spread of dengue from one person to another due to mosquito bites are more in comparison to rural areas.

District Epidemiologist Dr Madan Mohan said, “All points related with the management of malaria and dengue were discussed at a meeting of the district task force constituted yesterday. We have asked the departments concerned to run awareness campaigns at their own level.”

He said the district administration had also assigned duties to the MC to make preparations for fogging and spraying chemicals in pools, roadways for clearing junk at their workshops and schools for creating awareness during the morning prayer meetings.