Vizag registers 530 dengue cases this year

Visakhapatnam: Flowerpot plates, refrigerator drip pan, ornamental plants, water drums and domestic containers are among the major spaces harbouring the Aedes mosquitoes, it has been noticed during the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation’s household dengue survey.

After a sudden spurt in dengue cases in the city, the GVMC and the district administration initiated a special drive to identify and eliminate the habitats of Aedes larvae. It found thousands of larval habitats, sequestering in resting places inside the households, even in posh localities. The survey was on September 4 after roping in nursing students and municipal staff.

About 85,732 households in the disease-prone areas were already surveyed, identifying and destroying about 4,719 mosquito-breeding places. During the survey, malaria inspectors and other staff have been explaining the residents how the plants, water containers and ornamental plants could breed the Aedes larvae and other mosquito varieties.

Officials had also registered about 1,570 viral fevers, which are not of dengue variety. GVMC commissioner Hari Narayanan said they identified about 71 dengue-prone areas.

“I request residents to keep their indoors clean and ensure there is no water stagnation. During our survey, we found thousands of mosquito-breeding sites in places like flower pots, refrigerators, coolers, refrigerator drip pans, jars, etc. So I ask the residents to ensure that there is no such place where water is stagnant for some time,” Mr Hari Narayanan said.

Vizag city is faced with large numbers of cases of malaria, dengue and viral fever this year.

Recently, a boy died of dengue at the KGH. Patients are flooding various government and private hospitals with some or the other form of viral fevers, making it difficult for government hospitals to cope up with the inflow.

The King George Hospital had to run a speciality ‘Fever Clinic’.

“In case of suspected dengue and hemorrhagic fevers, we are making the patients undergo Elisa confirmatory tests at the Virology (Microbiology) Lab in KGH,” said KGH superintendent Dr G. Arjuna.