PANAJI
After repeated verbal warnings yielded no tangible response, the medical officer at Panaji’s Urban Health Centre (UHC) has issued a notice to the Kala Academy for failure to clean up the construction debris on its campus and in the surrounding areas which have spewed mosquito breeding sites there.
Dr Sunita Arlekar, who heads the Panaji UHC issued the notice to the Kala Academy authorities on last Friday listing in it measures that need to be urgently taken to clean up the area to stem the mosquito breeding there.
Arlekar told The Goan that a similar notice, under powers vested in her by the Goa Public Health Act, has also been issued to a contractor on one of the construction sites in the EDC Patto Plazza complex. She also said, at both the sites the authorities have been directed to clear the construction debris, scrap and other garbage within seven days.
“The notices have been issued as per the provisions of the Public Health Act and the rules thereunder and further action will be taken as provided in the law after seven days if remedial measures are not taken,” Arlekar said.
Meanwhile, officials at the Directorate of Health Services manning the National Vector-Borne Disease Control Programme in the State have admitted to a rise in the number of Dengue cases reported across the State in June.
As many as 60 confirmed cases of dengue were reported in June. This tally was 20 in the previous month of May but the officials said the spike is normal as rains arrived in this month with intermittent dry spells creating conducive conditions for the Aedes mosquito breeding and consequent transmission of the disease.
In the month of July, however, the health officials are keeping their fingers crossed in the hope that the numbers will drop with greater consistency in rainfall and continuous flushing.
Overall, Goa’s dengue cases in the first six months this year have more than doubled as compared to the same six-month period last year.
The State has reported 177 dengue cases in the January-June period this year as against 75 last year.
Officials also said that the pattern of more incidence of the disease in areas where the migrant labour community resides in shanties and slums has been observed this year too. The authorities said, they had issued public notices as well as specific ones to landlords in these areas last month listing out preventive measures that needed to be taken.
Meanwhile, dengue cases have been reported from Candolim, Nerul, Calangute, Thivim, Sangolda, Saligao, Chimbel and sporadic areas in Panaji areas in July thus far. Health officials said it has adopted a strategy of conducting testing in a cluster of 50 homes around the house of a patient who tests positive.
