Patiala District achieves major success in Dengue control
Dengue cases decline by 92% compared to 2018
5 Dariya News
Patiala 20-Nov-2019
In the year 2018, District Patiala saw a sudden rise in the number of dengue cases with the number of confirmed cases touching 2332. But this year, there is a sharp decline of 92% in the number of confirmed dengue cases across the district. Reviewing the performance, Deputy Commissioner Patiala Mr. Kumar Amit IAS observed that the efforts of the administration especially in the areas of inter-departmental coordination and monitoring bore fruits and he appreciated the efforts of all the departments and officers.Notably, alarmed by the massive number of cases last year, Deputy Commissioner, Patiala had decided to take this issue on war footing and ensure that all possible actions are taken to curb the menace of dengue. A monitoring team was constituted under ADC (G) Mr. Showkat Ahmad Parray IAS, which included Ms Innayat Gupta, AC (Grievance) and Dr. Sumeet Singh, District epidemiologist and a strategy to ensure inter-departmental coordination and with greater stress on high risk areas and peripheral zones of city was framed. Awareness sessions were conducted for Municipal Councilors and they actively participated in awareness drives in their areas. As preventive actions are the key to control the outbreak of dengue, a mass awareness drive “Iss Shukarvaar Dengue teVaar” was launched on July 19,2019 involving various departments and to reach out to maximum population, especially in the identified hotspot areas. Participation of Councillors, Sarpanches, School children, NSS Volunteers to carry out awareness rallies and coordination among the departments/officials- Health, MC, Rural and Local Bodies was the key to success.
A series of efforts were taken up involving Health officials, BDPOs, EOs and Sanitary Inspectors. Staff of Health department is conducting weekly “Friday- Dryday activities” at around 180 Sub-Centres and primary health centres starting from March 28, 2019. A total 36 rounds of this weekly campaign have been conducted so far. In major urban areas of Patiala, Rajpura, Nabha, dedicated anti-larvae teams are conducting daily house-to-house inspection and spraying larvicidal insecticides in stagnant water to control Aedes mosquito growth. Almost 90% households have been covered and larvae wasdetected at 10637 places which was destroyed. A total of 708 challans have been issued by Municipal Corporation Patiala so far.Intensive IEC campaign was carried out to sensitise the public- Use of audio visual aids to make people aware how to identify larvae, how to destroy it in their houses, use of jingles at public places- parks, bus stand, railway station, posters and banners, talk shows on radio. Further, another round of preventive activities were carried out in 25 identified hotspot areas with help of Youth Services and NSS. Regular meetings were held with heads of various bodies- Marriage palaces, restaurants, and major colleges to ensure their participation in the anti-dengue drive.With an all out campaign against dengue, regular spot checking, challaning, monitoring and inter-departmental coordination, this year we could manage such sharp decline in number of dengue cases which shall be close to 200 by the end of this season, told DC Patiala.DC Patiala Mr. Kumar particularly thanked the public of the District Patiala for their whole hearted participation in the awareness drives and for following the instructions and advisories of the administration. He emphasized that without public participation it would not have been possible to achieve the extent of decline in dengue that has been achieved.