\'Only god can save the city\': Dengue numbers start rising in corona-hit Hyderabad
Hyderabad: Even as Hyderabad is coping with an average of 1,200 COVID-19 cases a day, the number of dengue cases has been silently increasing. The city had 4 cases of the mosquito-borne infection in April, nine in May, and 14 in June. This month, one dengue case has been confirmed and results are awaited on seven more.
The dengue cases came to the notice of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal corporation (GHMC) when private hospitals began insisting on a dengue test along with COVID-19 screening.
The authorities have notified the government to make dengue tests mandatory in all government hospitals designated to treat COVID-19 patients. There is a fear that the number of dengue cases would increase if all COVID-19 patients undergoing treatment in government hospitals are tested.
Only now, GHMC has drawn up a standard operating procedure (SoP) and decided to conduct fever surveys in about 80-100 households at locations where the dengue cases were reported.
“Only god can save the city now,” the official said. “Though we have prepared an SoP, deploying eight teams consisting of 16 members, it will hardly make any difference since dengue tests have to be conducted by the health department.”
As per the SoP, the entomology team should inspect dengue-positive houses and take up spraying of insecticide even if mosquitoes are not found. The sanitation team in tandem should inspect garbage, debris and other unhygienic materials in the area and enforce cleaning by residents.
The medical team should check up all the members of the household. Besides, it should conduct a medical camp and a rapid fever survey in the area covering 80 to100 households. This exercise will take four to five hours for every positive case.
The urban community development team should take up intensive Information, education and communication (IEC) activity, preferably in the interpersonal communication mode and other material supplied through slum level federations (SLFs).
The teams should submit a detailed report, along with statistics of number of houses where adult mosquitoes were found, larvae detected, houses with people having general fever and houses with people having fever similar to dengue, malaria and chikungunya and action taken on all specific findings. They should also analyse the data and plan their future course of action.
