PANAJI
In a bid to counter the fogging drives undertaken by an opposition panch, the Santa Cruz panchayat along with Chimbel PHC began an awareness drive on vector borne diseases like dengue in the village on Saturday.
The drive started from Ward 6 and will continue throughout the village.
Speaking to reporters, Chimbel PHC Medical Officer Dr Jude D’Souza said the solution to vector borne diseases is to keep a control on the mosquito population, which can be done by not allowing stagnation of water.
“When water stagnation occurs in vases, coconut shells, containers, etc it leads to breeding of mosquitoes which in turn aids in the spread of diseases like dengue, chikungunya, malaria, etc,” the doctor added and urged the people to keep surroundings clean.
He further said that indiscriminate fogging will not help in eliminating mosquitoes.
“Only the adult mosquitoes will die, but the mosquito larvae will not get killed through fogging,” Dr D’Souza opined while explaining that the awareness drive will help educate the people on the best way to tackle the situation by way of keeping their surroundings clean and not allowing stagnation of water.
Further, Dr D’Souza said he will work with the panchayat and chalk out a programme to undertake the awareness drives on a regular basis.
St Cruz Deputy Sarpanch Domnic Pereira said the panchayat was getting targeted over a panch undertaking fogging drives.
“So, we decided to rope in Chimbel PHC to conduct an awareness drive on dengue,” Pereira stated while adding that fogging will not help in eliminating the problem from the roots.
Sarpanch Jennifer Oliveira, panchas Manguesh Gawas, Perpetua D’Souza, Amabelle Gomes, Ayush MO Dr Balkrishna Khanekar, Dr Priti Gawas, surveillance worker Harish Naik, ANM Sharmila Majik and others were present.
