Amid coronavirus, health department stares at dengue outbreak in Patiala

Karam Prakash
Tribune News Service
Patiala, April 26

Already battling with rising cases of coronavirus, the district health department is now apprehensive about the threat of vector-borne disease dengue.

The fresh spell of rain — over the past week — has aggravated the possibility of dengue in the district. 

Following the corona lockdown, there are spots where no one is there to look after the clearance of water.

Consequently, there are chances of pooling of water, and the health department fears dengue mosquitoes will start breeding therein. 

Health experts said if the stagnated water was not drained out soon, it might prompt breeding of mosquitoes in a large number.

Notably, the dengue breeds and hatches the eggs in clean stagnant water only. Moreover, the rainfall has made temperature conducive for the breeding.

District health department informed that they have already found dengue larvae at many places in the cities during their mass awareness campaign on Friday.

In fact, under the drive, health teams went door to door in the high-risk areas and instructed the city residents to keep their all sorts of water containers dry, at least, for one day in a week.

Following the detection of dengue larvae on Friday, the health department has already appealed to the city residents to be more vigilant and discard or clean their potential containers of rainwater in their premises.  

Health experts believe that dengue has the potential to create havoc if citizen’s participation doesn’t come forth in the drive against dengue.

They said as dengue larvae could breed in a water-filled bottle cap, therefore, it was impossible for them (health department) to check each household.  

Patiala Civil Surgeon Harish Malhotra said they had already started spraying larvicides and creating awareness among the city residents.

He said, “Along with coronavirus, people should also take care of the dengue. The public will be regularly made aware of control measures. Everyone should take care of their houses and surroundings.”