Only 20 dengue cases reported in city so far

KOLKATA: The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC)'s door-to-door surveillance since January has been instrumental in restricting the number of dengue cases to only 20 so far. The vector control team of KMC vows to continue its good work even during the trying times of COVID on the occasion of World Dengue Day that falls on May 16 (Sunday).

"We are going door-to-door in each of the eight wards from where dengue cases have been reported for spreading awareness and spraying of larvicide to destroy each and every breeding ground for mosquitoes. As per inputs received from our urban primary health centres in each of the wards, fever has been much less which is a clear indication that our sustained efforts to combat dengue are yielding good results,"Chief Vector Control Officer of KMC Debasish Biswas said. The dengue cases that have been reported are from wards 6, 36, 53, 62, 88, 93, 95 and 106. Last year, the number of cases till this time was 40.

The KMC had made a data bank in 2013 comprising 9048 pages that contained the location of every single house located in 144 wards in the city. The breeding ground for mosquitoes in and around all these residences was identified. The KMC keeps on upgrading this list on a daily basis.

As per database of the civic body, there are 48142 masonry tanks, 16014 wells, 1246 open overhead tanks, 5548 vacant plots, 5539 slum clusters, 17007 surface drains and 4947 under construction buildings where the vector control team have to keep strict vigil to ensure that they do not turn into breeding ground for Aedes Aegypti mosquitoes.

There are 15 dengue detection centres under KMC where tests are carried out free-of-cost. "Our activities in curbing dengue have been going on a regular basis since January. We have developed the best infrastructure to fight dengue and we try to visit every single household in a gap of ten days," Member Board of Administrators, KMC in-charge of Health department Atin Ghosh said.

There is a Whatsapp group through which messages related to immediate action is communicated to everyone when there is a need for special supervision.

"For example, when heavy rain lashed Kolkata a few days back and waterlogging was reported in some pockets, dengue related alerts were sent to all and measures were taken accordingly,"a senior official of the vector control team said.