Odisha Govt asks Dist Collectors to intensify anti-Dengue

With dengue spreading to new areas, the Odisha government today asked all district collectors and industries to intensify measures to prevent the spread of viral infection even as Union Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram urged the Centre to send doctors to curb the menace.
"Dengue is a mosquito borne viral infection and there is no drug and vaccine for treatment of dengue. Hence, for the effective prevention of dengue outbreak prompt steps should be taken to eliminate mosquito (Adese) breeding sites," a letter to industries, district collectors and IDCO said. The letter was signed by health secretary Aarati Ahuja and industries secretary Sanjeev Chopra.

After a review meeting at the secretariat, health and family welfare minister Atanu S Nayak said the number of dengue positive cases has reached 1,109.
"Two persons have so far died of dengue," Nayak said adding of the 4,955 blood samples tested, 1,109 have turned out to be positive for dengue.
While 366 persons have been admitted at different hospitals, 200 patients have been discharged after treatment, the minister said.
The Dengue menace was acute in Keonjhar and Cuttack districts. However, the disease has not spread to other districts like Jajpur, Bhadrak, Kendrapada, Balasore, Khurdha and Puri, he said.

Nayak said officials of both the health and urban development departments were working to keep the areas clean to prevent spread of the disease.

Union Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram, who hails from the state, today met Union Health and Family Welfare Minister J P Nadda at New Delhi and urged him to send a team of doctors and take necessary steps to curb the dengue menace.
"An epidemic like situation has arisen in Keonjhar district due to spread of jaundice and dengue. I have received reports that more than 600 people are suffering in Barbil town and its nearby areas in Keonjhar district.
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The Cuttack district administration and local civic
body authorities were engaged in blame games, shifting the onus on the industrial units that have come up at two industrial estates at Jagatpur and Khapuria, for the Dengue menace in the city.

Claiming that unclean and unhygienic surroundings of industrial estates were responsible for the spread of Dengue in the city, Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) has issued notices to at least four industrial units of these two estates asking them to show cause as to why their units would not be ordered to shut down for creating public nuisance.
The industrial units, on the other hand, were squarely blaming the CMC for the present situation in the city. "Unplanned work of JICA, damaged and mock-filled drains and poor sewerage systems have already turned the city into a hell. Garbage strewn across the city and stagnant water in low lying areas are the real causes of mosquito menace and Dengue," industrial unit associations alleged.