Consequent to the recent outbreak of dengue, the district administration has come out with a new strategy to combat dengue.

Under the initiative,entomologists, medical teams, health inspectors, sanitary workers, revenue and local body officials are now identifying and focussing on “hotspots” of dengue fever cases to treat patients and launch source reduction activities at micro-level.

Instructions have been sent to Primary Health Centres, upgraded PHCs, urban Primary Health Centres, taluk and district headquarters hospitals and 40 private hospitals in Tiruchi district to send daily report on fever cases.

The Health Inspectors of concerned areas will study the reports everyday in the morning to identify the hotspots.

According to sources, the areas, villages or wards where more than 10 fever cases have been reported will be treated as hotspots. Areas with more than three dengue positive cases or fever related deaths will also be considered as hotspots. Upon arriving at the list of hotspots, it will be sent to all officials right from the district Collector to rural, municipality, town panchayat and rural development for carrying out intensive anti-mosquito drives.

“The new strategy, which has been circulated to all concerned officials, seems to be working well to contain fever cases and controlling breeding of dengue causing mosquito. We cannot be complacent and the effectiveness of the strategy is being monitored closely,” says Collector K. Rajamani, who visits these hotspots every morning.

Deputy Director of Health Services I. Ravindran, said that the number of hotspots in the district had come down to eight from eighteen due to enhanced attention. The number of fever cases being admitted to Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Government Hospital in Tiruchi has also come down to about 350 from 600 a day.

“We continue to receive dengue positive cases from Uppilliyapuram and Mannachanallur blocks. However, there has been considerable improvement in dengue control measures over the past week. We will employ more manpower in the hotspots,” Mr. Ravindran added.

Meanwhile, Collector Rajamani, who visited various areas including Kallukuzhi, Ulaganathapuram, Ramakrishna Nagar, Anna Nagar and others in 43rd ward of Tiruchi Corporation along with Commissioner N. Ravichandran on Thursday, detected Aedes Aegypti larvae on a under construction building of the Public Works Department at Kallukuzhi.

A penalty of Rs. 50,000 was imposed on the contractor for failing to take measures to prevent mosquito breeding.

Mr. Ravichandran also issued orders to suspend water supply to four houses on the same charges at Anna Nagar and M. N. K. Colony.

We cannot be complacent and the effectiveness of the strategy is being monitored closely

K. Rajamani

Tiruchi Collector