KMC announces slew of measures to arrest cases
In the wake of an increase in the number of dengue cases in the city, Mayor of Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), Firhad Hakim said soon a Bill will be introduced that will make it compulsory for diagnostic centres to share dengue positive data with the civic body while announcing that a fever surveillance drive will also be initiated in every ward.
On Wednesday, Hakim, along with deputy mayor and Member Mayor-in-Council of Health department, Atin Ghosh held a meeting with all department officials and councillors where stress was laid on adding more teeth to the civic body’s effort of preventing a massive dengue outbreak.
Hakim said KMC cannot remain content with whatever measures it has taken until now. He added that special attention needs to be given to wards which are vulnerable and have registered several cases, such as wards 45 and 40. He said what has come to attention is, in several buildings the rooftops are not cleaned, thus, paving way for breeding of mosquitoes. Most of these are located in areas with several office buildings.
His comments come in the wake of a recent death of a minor girl. The girl was a resident of the Picnic Garden area and it was later found that waste had accumulated on the rooftop of her residence, which may have paved the way for mosquito breeding. Further, KMC has already showcaused the diagnostic centre from where the girl got herself tested for dengue. This was done because the diagnostic centre allegedly did not share the dengue positive result with the civic body.
The Mayor said: “We will soon introduce a Bill that will make it compulsory for diagnostic centres to share dengue positive data with the civic body.”
Ghosh said that a fever surveillance drive will be launched in every ward where five to seven health workers along with 100-day workers will monitor cases of fever in that particular ward.
Anyone who is down with fever for more than 48 hours needs to get a test done. Additionally, he said records need to be maintained on dengue cases so that the civic body can monitor the areas with a high number of cases of vector-borne diseases. “Only then, we can identify the reasons for such a mass outbreak in that area.”
He further added that councilors too need to play a crucial role along with health workers. He said in properties which are found locked but without any maintenance work, KMC will break down the lock, clean the premises, put a new lock and inform the local police station. The cleaning bill will be attached to the property tax bill of that particular assessee.
Ghosh highlighted that inter-sectoral meetings will have to be held. The borough chairmen and councillors need to be part of it, along with officials of other departments. Vulnerable pockets will have to be identified and a ward report needs to be submitted with the KMC health department. Additionally, a separate borough level meeting for containing dengue cases has to be held once a month. “Next three months are crucial,” he said.
