625 dengue cases reported from 2019, says civic body

The submission was in response to a query put forth by the first bench comprising the Chief Justice AP Sahi and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy on a plea moved by advocate AP Suryaprakasam seeking measures to control the spread of dengue in Chennai municipal limits.

Corporation Joint Commissioner (Health) P Madhusudhan Reddy submitted that these 625 cases were distributed throughout the city in all zones and were not observed in clusters in any defined area.

Through the Integrated Disease Surveillance Project (IDSP) and from field survey, fever cases are notified to the concerned zonal health authorities on a daily basis for initiating containment measures against dengue and other vector-borne diseases at the earliest, the counter said. Stating the death of two children – one in Mogappair East and another in Maduravoyal – were due to the presence of comorbid conditions, the official informed the court that the Corporation has been divided into sectors, with each sector containing approximately 500 to 600 houses. One worker is allotted to each sector to carry out anti-larval measures and source reduction activities by undertaking house-to-house inspection.

Listing out the number of sprayers and fogging machines deployed, the counter submitted that at present 1,243 permanent workers and 2,182 contract workers were engaged in dengue/mosquito control activities. After the disposal of a case pending at the High Court, 91 sanitary inspector vacancies would be filled up, it added. The plea had sought for the appointment of a committee of health and other experts in the field of public safety and communicable disease to consider the efficacy/adequacy of the measures taken by the Corporation in tackling the dengue menace/epidemic in Chennai.