A high-level committee from the State Government has begun reviewing the measures taken by the district administration to control the spread of dengue fever, and the mosquito control measures on Thursday.
The committee led by Tamil Nadu State AIDS Control Society Project Director Kumar Jayant conducted a meeting with the officials of various departments, Erode Corporation and non-governmental organisations.
Appreciating the efforts taken by the officials here so far, Mr. Kumar Jayant said the elected representatives of local bodies should also join hands with the authorities to detect fever cases.
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If the representatives alerted the health officials about the fever cases, a medical team would be sent to the spot immediately to treat the persons, collect blood samples and conduct a screening camp, he said. The administration had already intensified the awareness campaign on dengue. Programmes such as rallies, seminars, distribution of handbills and screening of videos were being conducted across the district to increase the level of awareness among people.
Local body workers were carrying out the anti-larval and fogging exercises to control the mosquito menace, he said.
Mr. Jayant also asked the health authorities to check the stock levels in all the blood banks in the district and the availability of medicines to treat the fever cases.
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Discussing various prevention measures, he said that the local administrations should be directed to chlorinate the water adequately before supplying it to people.
Mr. Jayant, following a request from Collector V.K. Shanmugam, said that steps would be taken to equip the Erode Government Hospital to carry out the Elisa test to confirm the dengue infection.
Currently, the officials were sending the blood samples to Coimbatore Medical College Hospital, where the test facility was available.
The Collector presided over the meeting. Joint Director of Health N. Sengottaiyan, Deputy Director of Health Services Dr. C. Sekar, Corporation Commissioner M. Vijayalakshmi and senior officials attended the meeting. Members of the committee would inspect the health centres, mosquito control activities and a number of areas in the district, where more fever cases were reported, officials said.