Greater Chennai Corporation on Saturday launched a campaign to clear accumulated waste and remove mosquito breeding sources in all zones of the city.
Chennai Corporation Commissioner J. Radhakrishnan visited Pattinapakkam near Adyar Creek and led a team of workers who started removing garbage and cleared mosquito breeding sources. He ordered officials to clear mosquito breeding sources in institutions, including schools, colleges, hostels, bus stands and buildings where more than 20 persons gather.
“Always, during the last three months of the year, the number of dengue cases is higher than those in the first nine months. In the current year, there has been a slight increase reported throughout the country, though not as high as it was in 2017. The Corporation is strictly following the guidelines of the State government, the Directorate of National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme and the State Directorate of Public Health. We have a twin focus, the primary focus being source reduction. The secondary focus is clinical management,” said Dr. Radhakrishnan.
With regard to source reduction, the GCC has sensitised residents to the breeding of aedes mosquitoes in all the zones. “The clinical strategy, whether it is Jatkapuram, or it is zone Valasaravakkam, or Adyar, we have instructed our domestic breed checkers and entomologists to focus on the uniqueness of the sources, for example, in the slum clearance board, housing board, and multi-storeyed tenements, which have water issues, the improperly-covered blue drums are the primary breeding sources,” he noted.
“Similarly, uncovered sumps are another source. The second source which we have found in areas like Perungudi, Madipakkam and neighbouring localities, is vacant plots strewn with garbage, plastic and other waste which become receptacles of rainwater,” he said. “Thirdly, institutions, such as colleges, schools, hostels, and any premises wherever construction work was under way, the water used for curing became the source, in addition to the standard source, tyres,” said Dr. Radhakrishnan.
“The good thing is that the civic body is also following scientific aspects of finding out house index and other vector indices through entomological survey,” he said. The civic body has also been conducting medical camps at hotspots to control mosquito-borne diseases.
Whenever cases are reported, house-to-house search is carried out in the perimeter of 500 metres to identify sources. “In addition to the free health routine available at our 300 centres, including 140 health and wellness centres, we conduct 40 camps on a daily basis, where cases get reported. This monsoon, in addition to dengue, we are focussing on chikungunya, malaria, leptospirosis, scrub typhus, and other respiratory infections,” he said.
