Health secy writes to Collector and hosp authorities on dengue prevention

CHENNAI: Health secretary Gagandeep Singh Bedi wrote to the district Collector to ensure and adhere to the dengue prevention and control activities. He instructed the Deans, Joint Director of Health Services and Deputy Director of Health Services to monitor the fever cases in view of the sporadic rains in the State.

In order to prevent and control the outbreak of dengue cases, he has instructed to follow up of work of Domestic Breeding Checkers who are assigned to check all the households at least once in a week for any breeding sources of Aedes mosquitos and complete the source reduction activities.

The health secretary has instructed to check for all the indoor breeding sources such as refrigerator back-trays, indoor flower pots should be checked for any presence of Aedes larvae and the same should be eliminated. Fogging needs to be ensured, both in the morning and evening for the knock down of mosquitos.

Meanwhile, the local bodies have been instructed to ensure the availability of adequate stocks of Insecticide like Temephos, which is to be put in potable water, Pyrethrum extract, for Indoor fogging and Technical Malathion, for outdoor fogging.

They have also been instructed to ensure mass cleaning activities in all the high-risk areas including the tyre removal campaigns, plastic carry bags lying out in the open and other source reduction activities. Health secretary has stated that the authorities should engage in frequent and continuous sensitization and awareness programs with the help of periodical press releases, NGOs - student led campaigns to create awareness among the public on prevention and control measures of dengue.

Meanwhile, the sale of over-the-counter drugs without prescriptions should be avoided as it can lead to future complications and people should be educated on pro-actively consulting the medical practitioners for fever episodes.

With regards to preparedness of health facilities in the State, the health secretary has instructed to initiate fever clinics in the needy upgraded Government Primary Health Centers, Government Hospitals and Government Medical College Hospitals, while ensuring that the entire hospital campus is also free of mosquito breeding sources.

The hospitals have been instructed to start dedicated exclusive wards for management of fever and dengue cases, based on need. They have also been asked to keep the stock of adequate number of Non-Specific Antigen testing kits for testing patients with fever less than 5 days and IgM Elisa Kits for testing patients with fever more than 5 days.

The hospitals are to ensure adequate stock of drugs and Intravenous fluids, blood and blood products to manage any crisis and promote more blood donation camps in all the hospitals.