Even a small shower is enough to evoke painful memories of a dengue outbreak that left scores of villagers dead in eastern Chittoor district in 2017.
The outbreak of the disease led to a six-member medical team from Delhi rushing to the region to bring the situation under control.
The same year, two Collectors — Siddarth Jain and his successor Pradyumna — had to inspect the villages following a public furore over the unprecedented dengue casualties. The despair shook the eastern mandals from April till December that year with over 50 casualties, subsiding only after a month-long stay of senior medical and health officials. A senior medical officer was also suspended on charges of dereliction of duties. A majority of the dengue casualties was among the poor and downtrodden families there.
Four years hence, the situation has remained largely the same in many panchayats, municipal wards and divisions, with choked drains and stagnant pools in the rural areas, providing mosquitoes ready breeding grounds. There is no clarity on whether fever surveys are being conducted or not. A few weeks ago, Collector M. Hari Narayanan had ordered that salaries be stopped for some staff of key departments in five mandals in the district, the reason being that fever surveys were being delayed inordinately.
In the backdrop of the COVID pandemic and with fears of a third wave, there is a serious shortage of sanitation staff in various panchayats and urban areas. It has resulted in irregular cleaning of drains. Curtailed public activity due to the pandemic and good rains have led to wild growth of weeds on vacant lands.
An ongoing awareness campaign on dengue from July 1 till 30 is scheduled only in municipal corporations and municipalities. The District Malaria Officer said that the campaign would cover only the urban areas. The official said that there was no special focus on the rural areas other than promoting the dry-day protocols on Friday. “From January till date, there were 33 dengue cases and 17 malarial cases in the district,” the official said.
Field staff of the medical and health department deplored that Chittoor district had seen over half a dozen District Medical and Health Officers in a span of five years, while many key posts meant to supervise public health were held by the in-charges. Inconsistencies in the medical and health administration also had a telling effect on poor handling of the outbreaks of viral fevers in the district, it is observed.
