A massive public awareness and source-reduction campaign will be launched in the capital by involving over 5,000 people, including health workers, members of voluntary agencies and schoolchildren as part of an action plan to bring down dengue fever cases in the district.
This was decided at a meeting called by Health Minister V.S. Sivakumar and attended by senior officials of the Health department and representatives of the city Corporation, including the Mayor, here on Thursday. Social Welfare Minister M.K. Muneer was present.
The State has reported 3,307 confirmed cases of dengue fever till date this year. Of this, Thiruvananthapuram district accounts for 65 per cent of the cases, with the total number of confirmed dengue cases being 2,133.
Majority within city
Nearly 70 per cent of the cases reported in Thiruvananthapuram district are from the areas under the city Corporation, especially the 42 urban wards, where the health-related field activities are mainly the responsibility of the civic authorities.
This year, the dengue burden soared as soon as the rainy season began and number of cases reported in the district crossed 1,800 by September itself.
It was decided at Thursday’s meeting to launch a massive source-reduction and cleaning campaign in the city Corporation areas on November 1.
Cleaning activities will be taken up in all educational institutions, government offices, private and public sector institutions.
The campaign will be taken to schools and homes by involving schoolchildren.
‘Dry Day’ will be observed on November 4, when teams of health workers would go on house visits with the message of source reduction and keeping one’s surroundings clean. They will inspect all premises and ensure that there are no sources where water could remain stagnant, encouraging vector breeding.
Fifty groups each will be deployed in every ward for health-related field activities. As part of coordinating all field activities, a meeting of representatives of construction companies and hotels/eateries will be called on October 20.
On October 25, representatives of Federation of Residents’ Associations of Thiruvananthapuram will be called for a discussion with the Health Department and Corporation officials.
A detailed draft of the proposed action plan to tackle the district’s dengue burden was presented at the meeting.
K. Muraleedharan, MLA, Mayor K. Chandrika, Health Principal Secretary Rajeev Sadanandan, Director of Health Services P.K. Jameela and all senior Health department officials were present at the meeting.
