Kolkata: Following the instructions from the state health department to strengthen anti vector borne drive, various civic bodies are planning to hire more conservancy workers for cleaning of drains and removing of garbage in a regular internal.
Howrah Municipal Corporation has already decided to deploy 500 more conservancy workers. All the civic bodies are gearing up to put in place adequate mechanisms to check dengue malaria cases ahead of Monsoon. The conservancy workers who will be deployed as additional workforce will be given special training on how to apply anti larva oil. In the wake of a steep rise in dengue cases in some pockets of Bengal, the state health department has asked various districts to form a monitoring team which will intensify the surveillance against the vector borne diseases. The vector control cell of the Health department has been collecting data from all the districts on a regular basis and monitoring the situation.
The district Health officials have already been asked to strengthen surveillance to ensure that there is no accumulated water in any places. The Chief Medical Officers of health in the districts have been asked to update the senior officials about the day-to-day monitoring. More than 190 places across Bengal have been identified as dengue-malaria prone zones by the health department.
Various civic bodies have already been asked to carry out a home-to-home survey in those places falling under the identified spots.
Civic employees have already started collecting larvae samples on a random basis from the houses which are there in the affected zones.
It may be mentioned here that the State government has already cleared a fund of Rs 16.25 lakh for procuring kits. Initially, five hospitals will buy serotype testing kits.
They are SSKM Hospital, North Bengal Medical College, Murshidabad Medical College, Midnapore Medical College and the School of Tropical Medicine each will get around Rs 3.25 lakh for procuring kits.