Have the dengue cases come down ? Pat comes the response from health officials and doctors in government and private hospitals: Yes.
The number of persons admitted in various hospitals in the district had come down from 842 a fortnight ago to less than 500 on Wednesday, a senior health official said and added that incidence of fresh cases too had come down to less than five.
Clarifying that there were no dengue deaths, the official said that the severity continued. People still approached the Government Rajaji Hospital as a last resort after private hospitals in their locality referred them to GRH when the fever continued for over a week.
When asked whether the treatment at private hospitals was as per the standards, the health official said that care was fine at major hospitals but it was not up to the mark in small clinics/ hospitals in suburban areas.
Though Collector K. Veera Raghava Rao, Corporation Commissioner Aneesh Shekar and their teams have been inspecting houses and creating awareness to overcome the dengue threats for the last one month, lack of cooperation from the people resulted in achieving favourable results.
Many residents in the city and peripheries were scared to allow health staff inside their homes. The staff entered homes only where they were allowed. When the staff had information that dengue cases were high in a particular area, they had to check the status of the cleanliness. After persuasion, they had to step into homes. There were some wordy duels, a sanitary inspector in-charge of Subramaniapuram said.
Officials blamed the people for not dumping waste in dumper bins and for not cooperating in segregating waste (bio-degradable and non bio-degradable). A health official said that the residents should dump their garbage well in time. “Some people dumped garbage after the dumper bin was emptied for the day. The garbage thus remained there for the next 24 hours or so. By simply checking the timing, it could be avoided,” he said. However, residents had a different version. They said many channels were filled with plastic waste and all sorts of garbage. Though officials were well aware of these open threats, they did not take any step to clear them for days together.
Conservancy workers said that their salaries were not paid properly by the contractors despite agitations staged in the past. The officials promised to intervene and post additional workers but it continued to remain in the discussion stage only.
But there was no dispute that dengue cases were declining and officials expressed the hope that it would be eradicated completely within a fortnight.
