In eight months, Tamil Nadu has recorded 11,538 cases of dengue and four deaths, crossing the 10,000-mark after a span of six years.
In view of the upcoming northeast monsoon and the slow rise in fresh cases, the Health Department and others, including the Municipal Administration and Water Supply and Rural Development, are gearing up to implement preventive and control measures for dengue as well as acute diarrheal diseases, typhoid, and hepatitis.
On September 1, 205 cases of dengue were reported, taking the total to 11,743. “Ten districts accounted for 57.6% of the total dengue cases reported in Tamil Nadu,” Health Minister Ma. Subramanian told reporters on the side lines of an inter-departmental coordination meeting held on Monday. These districts were Chennai, Coimbatore, Krishnagiri, Tiruppur, Tiruvallur, Theni, Madurai, Tirunelveli, Thanjavur and Tiruchi.
In 2017, the State had recorded 23,294 dengue cases and 65 deaths. Prior to this, 2012 saw 13,204 cases and 66 deaths, according to data from the Directorate of Public Health and Preventive Medicine. Last year, there were 9,121 cases and 12 deaths due to dengue. “We are continuously monitoring 4,676 government and private hospitals in the State, and if any person is diagnosed with dengue, they are immediately added to our list,” Mr. Subramanian said.
After Monday’s inter-departmental coordination meeting, the officials will hold meetings in their respective districts and plan steps to create awareness among the public, monitor private hospitals to identify cases of dengue, and ensure those affected are treated appropriately, he added.
Health Secretary Supriya Sahu requested the Directorate of Public Health to strengthen surveillance measures and start micro-surveillance so that any spike even in a small area would be known. She raised the need for community approach and volunteers to take forward preventive and control measures, and urged officers to ensure that there was no stagnation of water after the onset of the northeast monsoon. She also asked them to come up with action plans at the municipality and district levels.
Referring to the 10 districts that accounted for a major chunk of the cases, Director of Public Health and Preventive Medicine T.S. Selvavinayagam said this depended on many factors including the population and vector dynamics. He added that they monitored the larval index and took up mosquito surveillance. Interventions such as source reduction and anti-larval and anti-adult mosquito measures were put in place in areas where they expected cases to occur.
He stressed the need to fill the gap in the number of mosquito breeding checkers. While 31,227 were needed, only 23,457 had been deployed in the various blocks, town panchayats, municipalities, and corporations across the State.
D. Karthikeyan, Principal Secretary, Municipal Administration and Water Supply Department, and J. Kumaragurubaran, Commissioner, Greater Chennai Corporation, were among those that participated in the meeting.
