Atin Ghosh to lead awareness campaigns against dengue

Kolkata: Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has prepared a geographical map of the areas under all the 16 boroughs that have witnessed the maximum number of dengue cases this year.

Member, Mayor in Council (MMiC), Health, Atin Ghosh will camp for three days a week in each of the boroughs to lead awareness campaigns against the vector-borne disease.

"There have been nearly 80 percent less cases of dengue this year. But there is no scope of complacency. From next year, I will personally camp three days a week in those areas of the boroughs where there have been more cases of dengue. The councillors and all officials of the borough level will be part of the awareness campaign," said Ghosh in reply to a proposal by Left councillor Chayan Bhattacharjee, at the monthly meeting of KMC.

It may be mentioned that the KMC board had prepared a map of malaria-prone areas in South Kolkata during 2000-2005 and took elaborate measures, resulting in eradication of the mosquito-borne disease.

Ghosh said that the weather conditions in the state are ideal for the breeding of dengue mosquitoes, almost throughout the year. "Dengue mosquitoes can breed when the humidity is 50 percent and the temperature is over 18 degree Celsius. Till today (Tuesday) from January 1, humidity and temperature have never dipped beyond this level. Only on Monday, the humidity was 49 percent," he added.

The KMC health units doing dengue detection tests have been conducting NS1 tests as well as IGG tests.

Ghosh said that the health department of the civic body has learnt a month ago that a good number of dengue affected people were found to have dengue II virus.

"As soon as we learnt of the dengue II virus, the health centres were to conduct NS1 tests as well as IGG tests. The IGG test helps us to detect whether the person has had dengue earlier. If a person with dengue II virus is found to have dengue history, it is dangerous and may even lead to mortality. He/she would need special monitoring in these cases," he maintained.

The KMC had sent as many as 116 samples for dengue II virus test at National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases (NICED) and 90 percent results were positive, which is a clear indication that the virus has hit people in the city too.

Ghosh made it clear that only infrastructure boost cannot prevent dengue and said that awareness among the

people is of the utmost importance.