The Health Department has intensified preventive measures in areas where dengue cases have been reported in the city.
According to Health Department officials, cases being reported within the district are sporadic, but remain a matter of concern.
Drinking water
They said that more focus was on educating the public on safe storage of drinking water to bring down the breeding of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes that transmit the dengue-causing virus.
Coimbatore Medical College Hospital (CMCH), the largest tertiary-level government facility in the region, is getting four to six cases a day on an average.
CMCH Dean A. Edwin Joe said that patients from neighbouring districts such as Erode, Tirupur and the Niligiris were also being referred to the hospital.
He said that a child from Tirupur, who tested positive for dengue, died at CMCH on Sunday.
The child was brought to CMCH in a critical stage from another hospital.
“Three patients with symptoms of dengue are being treated at the hospital and their condition is stable,” Dr. Joe told The Hindu on Wednesday, adding that a special quarantine ward was operational at CMCH to treat dengue cases.
Health Department officials are visiting places where dengue cases are being reported.
As Aedes aegypti lays eggs only in fresh water, officials who conduct house visits in affected areas are advising people to store drinking water in closed containers.
Unnoticed
places
Apart from the houses of the affected people, the others that come within a radius of 500 metres of these are also being visited by officials. They help people identify unnoticed places where mosquitoes lay eggs, said a senior official from Health Department.
