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Written By: Admin | Published : October 13, 2012 9:09 AM IST
Reviewing the dengue situation in the region, Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said on Friday that the local bodies should take more steps to prevent the spread of dengue in southern states.
Azad was in Chennai to chair a review meeting of health ministers and health secretaries of the four southern states Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala and the Union Territory of Puducherry relating to the health situation particularly dengue in this region.
Municipal corporations, local bodies and panchayats should take measures to prevent mosquito breeding in their respective jurisdictions, by undertaking campaigns for sanitation and cleanliness, he added. He asked authorities to launch sanitation and cleanliness campaigns by involving people and to carry out fogging and spraying in identified areas.
The minister also insisted on equipping government and private hospitals and training doctors and nurses to reduce fatalities.
He said education ministers of the four states and Puducherry should issue necessary guidelines for this while stressing that there is no need to panic in this region as the governments are on the right track in handling the situation.
According to Azad, the central government would provide increased flexibility to states in tackling vector borne diseases under the National Rural Health Mission.
The meeting also decided to carry out fogging to kill adult mosquitoes while spraying of larvicides at mosquito breeding centres.
At the conclusion of the meeting, Azad said that full sleeved shirts and trousers can protect students and adults against mosquito bites leading to dengue. He suggested school students should be allowed to wear full sleeved shirts and trousers till the number of dengue cases comes down.
According to the health ministry, a total of 12,500 dengue cases were reported from Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andra Pradesh and Puducherry this year - over four-fold increase from the 2,859 cases reported in the corresponding period last year. Similarly, 33 deaths due to dengue were reported in the region from January-September last year as against 77 deaths during the corresponding period this year.
Source: IANS
