PANAJI
Stung by the rising graph of dengue cases each year, the vector-borne disease cell of the Directorate of Health Services (DHS) is readying to tackle the menace much before the monsoon hits this year and is banking heavily on the involvement of local communities in the battle.
In late April and early May, the DHS approached parish priests in Panaji and St Inez to make announcements during Sunday liturgical services about the do's and don'ts to check mosquito breeding and thus tackle dengue.
"We also approached Muslim religious leaders to make similar announcements at Mosques," Dr Kalpana Mahatme, who heads the DHS’ national vector-borne disease control programme, said.
Dr Mahatme said temple managements too have been approached but Hindus worship individually and not as a community so announcements are not that effective as they are in churches and mosques.
"Last year we did get significant help from local bodies, including providing us with staff, to carry out our awareness and mosquito breeding prevention measures across the State. However, we need the local population (community) to join in the efforts if we are to check and eventually eliminate dengue," Dr Mahatme said.
Meanwhile, doctors in-charge of Urban Health Centres, Primary Health Centres and Community Health Centres have already been issued instructions to commence ground action on measures to tackle dengue and also malaria.
Anti-larval measures, cleanliness drives and fogging operations are some of the measures which will be carried out particularly in vulnerable locales like construction sites and migrant ghettos.
However, in several settlements and also urban areas where residential buildings and complexes abound, mosquitoes breed in water stored in homes, including base-plates under flower pots and sometimes even in unused commodes," Mahatme said, adding that households must ensure such residual water is cleared at least once every seven days.
"This is why we need the support of the local community. They must first be aware of the do's and don'ts and act on it," she added.
The graph of dengue cases has been steadily rising annually and Goa was the worst hit last year (2023) when almost 450 confirmed dengue cases and multiple times of that figure of 'suspected' cases were reported.
Cortalim, Vasco (Vaddem, New Vaddem and Shantinagar), and the Borda, Fatorda and Moti Dongor locales of Margao were identified as high risk areas during the year, when the State also reported a handful of dengue deaths.
