Even as Bonakal mandal continues to grapple with outbreak of dengue and other seasonal ailments, Health Minister C. Laxma Reddy on Tuesday visited the dengue-affected areas in the mandal amid scaled up vector and disease control measures in the villages worst hit by the vector-borne disease.
The Health Minister’s visit to the mandal assumed significance in the backdrop of the outbreak of dengue in Ravinuthala, Allapadu, Govindrala and several other villages in Bonakal mandal in Khammam division. Bonakal mandal has recorded around 350 dengue positive cases over the past two months.
A 50-year-person of Ravinuthala, the hardest hit by the vector-borne disease, died of suspected dengue at a hospital in Hyderabad in the small hours of Tuesday, sources said. Unofficial sources put the death toll due to dengue at 23 in the entire Bonakal mandal so far this season.
Meanwhile, Mr Laxma Reddy, accompanied by Minister for Roads and Buildings T Nageswara Rao, personally monitored the provision of medical services to the fever patients and implementation of vector-control drive in Bonakal mandal on Tuesday. Speaking to mediapersons after visiting the Primary Health Centre in Bonakal, Mr Laxma Reddy said the district medical and health department has been consistently striving to provide prompt diagnostic and medical services to the fever patients in the mandal.
Only two persons died of dengue in Bonakal mandal so far this year, he said quoting the confirmatory ELISA test reports.
Collector D S Lokesh Kumar and others were present.