The Directorate of Public Health and Preventive Medicine has asked district health officers to strictly follow the district action plan to control and prevent dengue.
The officials have been instructed to conduct focused campaigns to inform, educate and communicate with people on the need to prevent dengue. The officials were also urged to take up all interventions under the National Programme well on time.
In a letter to district health officials, the Director of Public Health, T.S. Selvavinayagam, said there was an increase in dengue cases in districts, such as Tirupur, Coimbatore, Madurai, Theni, Namakkal, Ariyalur, Tiruvannamalai, Dindigul, Krishnagiri and Thanjavur. He issued instructions that the guidelines on collection of reports of fever from government and private hospitals; vector surveillance methods; activities to reduce source of breeding of mosquitoes; and engaging of domestic breeding checkers, be followed diligently.
The circulars were issued before National Dengue Day to be observed on Thursday, May 16. The theme for the year is ‘Connect with community, control dengue’. The district health officials have been urged to conduct source reduction activities to prevent breeding of Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes that carry and spread the infection.
