Secretary Health reviews dengue status, containment initiatives
JAMMU: Secretary Health and Medical Education (H&ME), Bhupinder Kumar, today conducted a detailed review regarding dengue status and containment initiatives being taken up in Jammu and Kashmir in the wake of this viral fever.
A detailed presentation on the prevailing position of dengue and containment initiatives was displayed by Epidemiologist/State Malariologist, J&K. He informed that as of date 3446 cases of dengue have been confirmed against 11909 suspect cases.
Pertinently, Health and Medical Education department is working hard towards containment of the disease by ensuring quality care services for dengue-positive cases being treated at home as well as in health institutions.
It was informed that Fever clinics are being run in GMC Jammu and other Hospitals for diagnoses and treatment of suspected dengue cases. In addition, regular spraying and fogging is being carried out in all the dengue-positive houses in the Jammu division. Besides, the regular calling of dengue-positive patients is being done by 104 Call Center (Health Help Line) being run by National Health Mission, J&K.
Secretary asked the officers to ensure cleanliness in the residential areas which is of utmost importance to check the menace of mosquito breeding.
Municipal Commissioner Jammu informed about various interventions being made to check mosquito breeding. The teams are being deployed for thermal fogging all the municipal wards on a rotation basis. Also, autos deployed by municipality for garbage collection are being asked to play Jingles/audio messages regarding dengue awareness.
Secretary directed that these autos must do miking at least three times a day in all the urban areas with a focus on hotspot areas including Rehari, Sarwal, Janipur, and Paloura. He appealed to the public, in general, to ensure no collection of water in unattended containers lying on the rooftops like tins, plastic bottles, tires, bird pots, coolers, water tanks without lids, etc.
He issued directions to the Director Health Services Jammu for intensifying the awareness campaign and containment measures to mitigate the dengue spread. It was decided that RBSK teams/ School Health teams will be deployed in the hotspot areas of Jammu Urban for imparting preventive measures and Health Education in collaboration with the Community Medicine Department of GMC Jammu. In view of the mounting trend of Dengue Positive patients, he directed CMO Jammu, Kathua, Samba, Reasi, and Udhampur to make available a sufficient number of functional beds and all essential medicines and consumables available for dengue cases.
It was also informed that the department is well equipped for platelets transfusion as recently one more component Lab has been established in Government Hospital Gandhi Nagar, Jammu, in addition to the existing component Lab at GMC Jammu.
