PANAJI
Stung by a steep rise in dengue cases in his native Sattari taluka, Health Minister Vishwajit Rane on Monday issued instructions to Director of Health, Dr Geeta Kakodkar to ensure health officers across the State work in sync with local bodies to check the spread of the vector-borne disease.
Separately, Rane, who also holds the Urban Development portfolio has also asked the Director of Municipal Administration to issue a circular directing chief officers of civic bodies to engage with health officers of their respective areas on the issue of tackling and monitoring the dengue situation.
“With dengue on the rise, I have given instructions to Director of Municipal Administration to issue a circular to COs of Municipalities directing them to interact with respective Health Officers," Rane said in a tweet.
"A monitoring mechanism to control the spread of dengue is the need of the hour,” Rane said further on the micro-blogging site.
Rane also said that parallelly he has asked Dr Kakodkar to inform all health officers to work in sync with panchayats and municipalities in managing any outbreak.
"Parallely, the Director of Health Services has been directed to inform all Health Officers to work in sync with Panchayats and Municipalities in order to take the necessary steps in public interest to curb the spread of Dengue in the state of Goa," Rane twitted.
Earlier last week, officials of the Valpoi Health Centre were overstretched to respond to the sudden rise in cases reported in the Sattari taluka, the home turf of the health minister.
A knee-jerk awareness campaign on the do's and don'ts related to anti-vector breeding was launched after the taluka reported a large number of suspect cases of dengue, mostly in Valpoi.
Copardem and Satodem were two endemic areas.
Officials had attributed the sudden rise of cases to the intermittent rains experienced recently which may have contributed to water stagnation and mosquito breeding.
