Mayor Mahabala Marla said here on Friday that the Mangalore City Corporation will give one week to hospitals and blood-testing laboratories to start sending blood test reports daily to the civic body or face action. The step is taking to control the spread of malaria and dengue in the city and to make the city malaria free, said Mr. Marla.
This comes weeks after doctors complained of inadequate measures to get accurate statistics on the disease, and Deputy Commissioner A.B. Ibrahim ordering an inquiry into the claims of the health officials of zero deaths in the last three years.
Addressing presspersons, he said the civic body on Friday dispatched an appeal letter to hospitals and laboratories to send blood test reports daily. Now they were taking seven to 10 days to send the reports. Daily reports had been sought as malaria and dengue cases were likely to increase in the rainy season. If they delayed in submitting the reports, there were chances of malaria and dengue cases spreading to more people in areas from where the cases have been reported. If the reports were submitted daily, health workers of the corporation could swing into action to clean up breeding centres or take up anti-malaria anti-dengue measures.
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Without elaborating on what action would be taken against the hospitals and laboratories, the Mayor said: “First we are making an appeal. If they did not care we know what to do.”
He said that the reports could be e-mailed to malariacellmcc@gmail.com or could be read out by calling up the phone number 0824-4277968. The hospitals should also report deaths due to malaria and dengue.
The Mayor said that for the past nine years, except in 2010, the malaria cases were on the decline in the city. In the last calendar year 4,714 cases were reported and in the first three months of this year 1,480 cases were reported.
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Mr. Marla said that the civic body in association with the Centre for Integrated Learning, a voluntary organisation, would take up a six-month campaign to create awareness among people on preventive measures to control malaria and dengue.