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Start awareness campaigns to prevent and control dengue

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Press Trust of India New Delhi
The Centre today asked various authorities including Delhi administration to undertake "rigorous" awareness campaigns in the city including schools and colleges to prevent and control dengue.

Union Health Minister J P Nadda said his Ministry has been "proactive" in taking measures to prevent dengue and various meetings with the states through video conferencing have been held.

He chaired a high level meeting to review the preparedness of the Delhi administration where Delhi Health Minister Satyender Jain and Mayors of the Delhi Municipal Corporations apart from officials of Ministry of Urban Development, National Vector-Borne Disease Control Programme (NVBDCP) and others were present.
 

"Multiple advisories have been shared with the states to build their capacity. Training has been provided to health workers and a working plan has been sent to the states to ensure timely implementation of various activities that need to be undertaken for vector control," he said.

Officials from National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Delhi Cantonment, CPWD and ICMR were also present during the meeting.

Nadda was also briefed on the preparations of the Health Ministry and Delhi Administration to prevent the spread of Dengue in the NCT of Delhi.

Nadda said that his Ministry has already provided all logistical and technical support to the Delhi Government in terms of surveillance and diagnostic kits to strengthen their efforts in addressing Dengue.

"Community participation and empowerment are the most crucial areas in dengue prevention. All the stakeholders should start rigorous awareness campaigns regarding the preventive steps to be taken by the people in their communities," he said.

He said that recently on World Health Day, 'India Fights Dengue' mobile application has been launched.

"He also suggested awareness activities to be taken up in schools, colleges and various localities with the help of the school administration and the RWAs.

"He also suggested that all available information on the measures taken by the Delhi Government and Delhi Corporations should be easily available to the people through various media channels," an official statement said.

Nadda earlier today in a written reply in Lok Sabha said that NCT government had constituted a dengue death review committee September 2015.

"The committee reviewed all the reported deaths due to dengue in Delhi during 2015 and found 46 confirmed deaths due to dengue report from Delhi and 14 were from out of Delhi," he said.

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First Published: Apr 29 2016 | 10:22 PM IST

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