Mayor inaugurates three dengue detection centres

It may be mentioned that throughout the country it is only in KMC that blood samples are examined and medicines are given free of cost to the victims. “Our Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee wants to bring more and more people under the umbrella of health services and KMC is serving the citizens and providing them medicine and treatment, free of cost,” he said.

He inaugurated three dengue detection centres on Friday evening. The KMC already has 8 such centres and another seven would be opened in a month’s time, taking the total to 15 which amounts to one dengue detection centre per borough.

“We can never assure that there would not be any case of dengue, but the spread of the disease has been curbed,” he said. When Chatterjee took over as the Mayor in 2010, he chalked out an elaborate plan to control vector-borne diseases. In the 1990s, some pockets in the city like Kalighat and Bhowanipore were badly afflicted with malaria and dengue. The highly vulnerable zones were identified and anti-larvae drives were carried out round the year. As a result, the number of people afflicted with malaria has gone down drastically.

Atin Ghosh, member, Mayor in Council (Health) whose work to control the spread of dengue has been appreciated by the National Vector Borne Disease Control Authority under the ministry of Health and Family Welfare said: “As there were fewer dengue detection clinics in the city there was often delay in giving the blood report causing further delay in starting the treatment. But now as all the 15 boroughs would have one dengue detection centre within a month’s time, the blood report would be available on the same day. This will speed up treatment.”

He said the centres were being run by trained people and urged people to visit the centres if they were found to be suffering from fever. “Because of global warming dengue has become rampant but we are successful in controlling spread of the disease,” added Ghosh.