Tamil Nadu’s Tirunelveli district is facing a sudden outbreak of dengue and state has intensified its anti-dengue operations. The death toll has mounted to 29. The sudden spurt of dengue cases has put health officials on their toes.
CM Jayalalithaa noting that 29 people had succumbed to the disease directed health officials to intensify control measures. The CM chaired a high-level meeting to review the issue and later in a statement, said complete cleaning work would be taken up in Tirunelveli.
Sterilisation would continue in all other districts. Of 1,466 people hospitalised, 817 were diagnosed with dengue. Of them, 423 patients were still undergoing treatment. An official said the total number of deaths covered the period starting from January. But, 24 of them succumbed to the disease in May.
The CM said the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) attribute the spread of the disease to dengue virus type-I and type-III. Since May 18 the officials have conducted awareness camps in all the districts. The state also opened two paediatric wards at Tirunelveli Medical College Hospital and appointed one entomologist for every taluk (district) and one senior entomologist for three taluks has been posted. The awareness generation work and disease detection campaigns were executed by medical officers in every taluk.
A high-level committee which includes the special secretary of the Health department, Directors of Public Health, Medical Education and Medical and Rural Health Services and additional director of Public Health, was camping in Tirunelveli to step up the anti-dengue operations. Totally, 1,330 employees in town and village panchayats were involved in vector control work since May 16. As a result, the spread of disease to neighbouring districts had largely been contained, the CM added.
