Tiruchi Corporation has roped in about 1,200 nursing and teacher training students to carry out dengue prevention and awareness activities in the city.
The nursing students are to be deployed for sensitising people to prevent breeding of the dengue causing aedes aegypti mosquito and also in carrying out door-to-door fever surveillance.
Corporation Commissioner V.P.Thandapani inaugurated the exercise at wards 1 to 6 in the Srirangam zone on Tuesday. The students fanned out to different parts of the town and sought to tell residents the importance of removing all sources of breeding for mosquitoes such as open water containers and discarded cans, tyres and other containers.
Mr.Thandapani said the civic body has constituted 20 teams, five each for the four zones in the city, to carry out dengue prevention measures. About 200 sanitary workers have also been deployed to remove all discarded containers in which water is found to be accumulating. The Corporation health wing was also engaged in identifying patients with fever and putting them on a treatment procedure.
The Corporation has also planned a city-wide campaign with the help of students on November 4 to remove all sources of mosquito breeding at households. The civic body has also brought out a dengue awareness pledge form to be signed by students affirming that they have removed all discarded containers in their houses.
Meanwhile, Collector Jayashree Muralidharan inspected on-going awareness campaign on dengue prevention in the city on Tuesday.
She visited households at Woraiyur, Pandamangalam and Ramalinga Nagar to check whether water containers have been kept closed and discarded containers drained of water. In a press release issued later, Ms.Muralidharan said monitoring committees, comprising health officials, have been formed at Tiruchi Corporation, municipalities, town panchayats and panchayat unions in the district to keep a vigil on the spread of dengue. They have been asked to conduct field visits and report to the district administration on a regular basis.
She also underlined the importance of preventing breeding of the dengue causing mosquito at the sources at households.
