“We are constantly monitoring influenza activities in hospitals and at community level. Swabs will be collected in case of clinical suspicion especially in the month of August and September,” said Dr Daksha Shah, head of epidemiology cell, BMC.

Last year in the same period, city saw a spate of swine flu cases.

Although there is no addition in the standard protocol for treating patients coming in with typical monsoon related ailments in hospitals, the prime focus will be on treatment at community level. BMC had recently launched a mass scale urban slum outreach programme ¿ Mumbai Arogya Abhiyan (MAA) — in the city to reduce deaths due to communicable diseases. The civic body said that lessons learnt during the swine flu epidemic helped strategise this programme.

Under the MAA—¿ that plans to reach out to every slum in Mumba— ¿ five teams of intern doctors from preventive social medicine department from four medical colleges, along with doctors from public health department, from all 24 wards will cover five slums for five days in a month.

“The MAA is already combing the slums for communicable diseases. This arrangement will work best for monsoons as doctors can intervene early,” said Dr Sanjay Oak, director, medical education and research, BMC. 

Meanwhile, hospitals are reserving fever out patient departments and wards. “Currently training for doctors, laboratory technicians, paramedical staffers and doctors from private hospitals for treatment of monsoon related ailments is going on. We have procured essential drugs like ORS, anti malarial tablets and have supplied it to primary health centers,” said Dr Shah.

BMC has also approached family doctors and general physicians in slum areas from where major chunk of cases are reported.

Doctors from the Indian Medical Association (IMA) have been also roped in to tackle the problem.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s health department has also tied up with disaster cell to send out bulk SMSes on the monsoon-related diseases and precautions.