Stating that while districts like Salem, Tiruvannamalai and Viluppuram have begun to show decline in dengue and other viral fever cases, C. Vijaya Baskar, Health and Family Welfare Minister, said that Madurai was yet to witness any decline.
Addressing government officials during inter-departmental coordination meeting on controlling dengue and other viral fever cases here on Wednesday, he said, “Though the cases are not going up, the numbers continue to remain the same.”
Pointing out in particular that more cases were getting reported from Madurai Corporation limits, with 49 of every 100 dengue cases in the district at the moment coming from Corporation area, he urged the officials to step up the anti-dengue measures and bring down the occurrences in ten days time.
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Apart from the focus on domestic breeding control, he also instructed the officials to crack down on quacks and over-the-counter selling of tablets for fever by pharmacies. Asking the officials to set a target on number of quacks to be booked in the coming month, he said that the government was also contemplating about invoking Section 307 of the Indian Penal Code for attempt to murder against the quacks.
He also appealed for increased cooperation between different departments in implementing the preventive measures.
Earlier speaking in the meeting, J. Radhakrishnan, Secretary, Health and Family Welfare department, asked the officials to ensure that all the private hospitals are promptly reporting every dengue case to the government. “It is a notifiable disease and action can be taken against the hospitals if they fail to report the cases,” he said.
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He also asked officials of all departments to give utmost priority to sensitising the public and eradication of domestic breeding sources. “The places to be checked without fail are the tanks in households that are left open, garbage or scrap items left in rooftop or in vacant areas, drums used to store water and pit taps,” he said.
He also stressed on the importance of checking all the government buildings, particularly places like bus depots and central government premises like railway stations.
Minister for Cooperation ‘Sellur’ K. Raju, Revenue Minister R.B. Udhayakumar, Commissioner of Revenue Administration K. Satyagopal, Madurai Collector K. Veera Raghava Rao and Corporation Commissioner S. Aneesh Sekhar were also present at the meeting.
Later, Mr. Vijaya Baskar along with few senior officials inspected the fever ward in Government Rajaji Hospital.