Amid concerns about the outbreak of dengue fever in parts of Mattannur municipality, Health Services officials here say that the situation is now under control as preventive measures to check spread of the disease are in full swing.
According to the officials, the outbreak of dengue fever, reported over the past week, is confined to two wards (wards 28 and 29) of the municipality. Except a couple of dengue fever cases reported elsewhere in the district, they said the two wards of the municipality are the only place where there is an outbreak. Nearly 100 cases of dengue have so far been reported, mostly in government health-care facilities. A few cases may have been reported in private hospitals, they add.
“Though new cases of dengue continue to be reported from the area, the situation is under control as there are no complications,” said District Medical Officer K. Narayana Nayak.
It would take one more week for the outbreak to subside as a result of the preventive measures including mosquito-control activities such as fogging and spraying of insecticides. He also said that Health squads were visiting households to create awareness about the disease and the measures such as use of mosquito nets as a protection against mosquito bites.
When contacted, a resident of ward 28, said that recently the area had witnessed a huge increase in mosquito population. The source of the mosquito breeding is said to be a nearby drain close to the town, she said. Health workers are now visiting the households in the area twice or thrice every day to inspect possible mosquito-breeding spots in the households, including trays kept below refrigerators, she added.
While majority of those infected with dengue fever are undergoing treatment at the Community Health Centre at Mattannur, some have been admitted in the District Government Hospital here. Two or three cases have been referred to the Pariyaram Medical College Hospital to avert any complication, the officials said.
Meanwhile, the United Democratic Front (UDF) on Thursday observed a hartal at Mattannur alleging that the government and the municipality were not acting to check the outbreak. Despite reports about waste water pools allegedly caused by some buildings in the town, the municipality failed to take any action, UDF leaders alleged. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) district secretariat alleged that the hartal was an affront to the people of the municipality as the UDF was politicising the outbreak.
