Deputy Commissioner A.B. Ibrahim on Saturday cautioned health officials of Mangalore City Corporation that he will write to the government to bring the health section of the civic body under the Department of Health and Family Welfare, if they did not fight against malaria and dengue effectively.
At a meeting here, Mr. Ibrahim said that the health officials at the civic body and officials from the Department of Health and Family Welfare should make joint efforts to bring malaria and dengue under control in the city. The Deputy Commissioner said that the drive against malaria and dengue in the city by the corporation was not intensive. On the actions taken to prevent breeding of malaria-causing mosquitoes, MCC Deputy Commissioner Gokuldas Nayak said that of the 272 construction sites in the city, health workers visited 129 places in the last one month. Of this, mosquito breeding was found in 69 places. Action was taken immediately to clear the breeding sites at 50 places. They issued notices in five cases where anti-larval measures were taken subsequently. An official from the Town Planning section said effective action has been taken in 99 per cent of cases.
Disputing this, Srinivas Kakkilaya, a private doctor, said the corporation cannot claim to have successful in preventing malaria when they are yet to visit the remaining 143 construction sites. “You have to admit about prevalence of malaria and deaths out of it,” he said.
Mr. Nayak said officials in the MCC felt let down with such comments when the Corporation was doing its best. “In every meeting we are painted in a bad light and people perceive we do not do much,” he said.
Mr. Ibrahim intervened and said such a perception was because the Corporation has not been effective in their actions. “Take action to suspend (building) licences of builders who do not take preventive measures. There should be some hard action,” Mr. Ibrahim said.
Tablets yet to be taken
Though the Health Department is providing tablets for Malaria free of cost, only three private practitioners have so far taken them, said District Malaria Officer S.B. Arun Kumar at a meeting convened by Deputy Commissioner here on Saturday.
Dr. Kumar said the department has enough stock of chloroquine and primaquine, the two anti-malarial drugs prescribed by the government. These are being offered to hospitals and private practitioners freely for giving them to patients. Dr. Kumar said the department was also providing rapid diagnostic kits on an undertaking that it will be used by the doctors only in case of emergency when lab technicians are not available nearby.