National team’s effort fails to control dengue spread

LUDHIANA: The sincere efforts by the team of National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme (NVBDCP) to make the city dengue-free seems to have failed to bring the desired results. This is because the team has detected the presence of larvae in various parts of the city.
The team has not only exposed the threat of dengue but also uncovered the claims of district health department that it had initiated enough steps to save residents from dengue.The team of NVBDCP visited the water supply department, police line head quarters on Saturday and found presence of larvae there. In the past four days, the team has visited many places and the situation seems more or less the same everytime.
Sources said around 4000 dengue cases were detected in Ludhiana in 2008 with 14 reported deaths in the city. This forced the authorities to initiate an inspection drive and see whether the department had taken adequate steps on the suggestions given by NVBDCP. Sources said after the dengue outbreak in 2008, a report was prepared and the team recommended suggestions for the health department as the district health authorities had allegedly failed to curb the transmission in the incipient stage due to lack of supervision and monitoring and lack of technical skills of the field and supervisory staff.
Sources said the district authorities came to action in mid-October, but by that time, transmission was at its peak with cases being reported from every part of the district. The report also exposed that the community, health and municipal staff emphasized upon clearing breeding grounds of mosquitoes in coolers and in unused tyres, plastic drums, junkyard, small domestic water containers. However, surprisingly, the team found larvae from the same places this time.
Talking to TOI, YS Parihar, entomologist, NVBDCP, said, “I visited various places and collected larvae samples from almost every place. Nothing much has been done to improve the situation”.