the goan I network
PANAJI
The State government’s health ministry has finally decided to bank on the primary health infrastructure across the State to raise its intervention to a level which will meet the challenge of the dreaded dengue menace which has in recent weeks posed a daunting task for the public health authorities.
All primary health centres as well as community health centres in the State will now be equipped and adequately stocked with dengue detection kits from Monday.
Health Minister Vishwajit Rane chaired a review meeting on the government’s intervention on clinically containing the rising cases of dengue, especially the instances of deaths due to complications arising among patients affected.
Rane said the availability of the testing facility for free at the Primary and Community Health Centres will greatly improve detection of the disease and also eliminate the lethargy among people to go in for the test on account of cost and also proximity of the testing facility to their homes.
Dengue has this year kept officials of the Directorate of Health Services on their toes as outbreaks have been reported from several cities and towns besides some rural areas across the State.
Rane is on record that although the statistics were not alarming, the higher number of deaths reported this year in comparison to the figures last year was worrisome.
The death of a young, 24-year-old budding entrepreneur from Panaji Yash Salgaonkar two weeks ago and the subsequent outbreak in Margao where nurses and other paramedics were themselves admitted in Hospicio and some other private clinics had earned the State government severe criticism.
Meanwhile, at the macro level, the government has also formed a co-ordination committee of officials drawn from the Health, Urban Development and Panchayat departments to manage the anti-larval measures in endemic neighbourhoods and locales to contain the breeding of the dengue carrier -- Aedes Aegypti mosquito.
