Health officials and workers of the Tiruchi Corporation and other local bodies in the district have been instructed to submit daily reports on incidence of fever and also the preventive measures taken to check spread of dengue in their respective jurisdictional areas.
A directive to this effect was issued by Pankaj Kumar Bansal, project director, Tamil Nadu Health Systems Project, who is also the designated monitoring officer for the district to monitor the preventive measures against dengue. He directed officials of the local bodies to go on a street-by-street visit to review the sanitary and health situation on a daily basis.
Mr.Bansal, who chaired a meeting with senior district officials here on Wednesday to review the preventive measures taken in the district, also announced that a 24-hour control room has been set up in the district to monitor the situation. Information regarding incidence of dengue can be reported to the officials at the control room by dialling 2333112 or 8825689923.
He instructed the district officials to take up preventive measures in villages where incidence of dengue has been reported. Preventive measures should also be taken up in the adjoining villages. Since the dengue causing mosquito aedes aegypti breeds only in clean water, water should not be stored in containers for more than a day. Water in discarded containers should be drained and kept clean. Government agencies can purchase equipment such as fogging machines from their general funds.
Mr.Bansal also visited residential colonies at Bheema Nagar and Airport area in the city and Kannudaiyanpatti near Manapparai from where dengue cases have been reported.
At Pensioners Street in Bheema Nagar he interacted with the family of a nine-month old baby who was said to have been afflicted by dengue but was recovering after treatment.
He enquired with the residents on the current situation and measures taken to prevent the spread of dengue by the officials.
He appealed to people with fever to approach government hospitals without delay. He assured that steps would be taken to carry out ELISA tests at the Manapparai Government Hospital.
Jayashree Muralidharan, Collector, V.P.Thandapani, Corporation Commissioner, K.C.Cheran, Deputy Director of Health Services, and other officials accompanied Mr.Bansal during his visit.