Health dept to focus on tourism belt
PANAJI
For the first time since dengue began haunting the State there has been a sharp year-on-year decline in the first two January-February months this year with just 16 cases reported.
Last year (2024) 55 dengue cases were reported in the State, Dr Kalpana Mahatme, who heads the National Vector-borne Diseases Control Programme in Goa, said.
Dr Mahatme said, the dengue hotspots are being mapped down to the micro-level and the department is ensuring timely clinical intervention.
The fewer dengue patients this year is perhaps the result of these collective, concerted efforts, she opined.
This year in January, Goa had just seven dengue cases. In February there were nine, of which eight were in North Goa -- two each in Sanquelim and Mapusa while one case in Pernem. Bicholim, Siolim and Saligao.
South Goa had just one case in February.
Mahatme said, most of those who contracted the Aedes mosquito inflicted disease are migrant labourers living either in slums or in make-shift shanties at construction sites.
Storing water in open drums in such living conditions has been zeroed in as the critical reason for mosquito breeding resulting in dengue cases, she said.
Interestingly, dengue cases were more common in the first five months between January and May in 2024 while the graph ebbed strangely in the monsoon and post-monsoon months.
Meanwhile riding on these encouraging signs, the health department has stepped up its efforts on the dengue prevention front in a bid to reverse last year's trend of a higher number of cases in the first January-June half of the year.
Officials have been periodically visiting the hotspots mapped last year and persisting with their awareness campaigns related to water storage methods and maintaining general hygiene around the house.
Mahatme said health department staff is also collaborating with local bodies in whose jurisdiction hotspots have been mapped to eliminate mosquito breeding sites.
Meanwhile, Mahatme said that there have been instances of tourists contracting dengue because of which small hotels and homestays in the State's tourism belt will also be focussed upon.
