The move comes a day after the death of 5-year-old girl from Headland Sada due to suspected dengue fever. Dr Rashmi Khandeparkar, health officer of Vasco UHC and her team visited the victim’s residence at Headland Sada on Wednesday.
She said that the team inspected the area to verify whether there were any mosquito breeding grounds or stagnant water. They did not find anything suspicious, nor did the department receive any dengue cases from the area.
“We have been taking precautionary measures by taking up spraying and fogging of chemicals in all wards where malaria or suspected dengue cases have been reported. Fogging and spraying was conducted in the victim girl’s locality.” “We have been educating the people periodically on the consequences of unhygienic conditions, where they live in. Since this is the first death reported this year, we have started an extensive campaign against dengue in all MMC wards and also in the Chicalim Panchayat jurisdiction,” she said.
She claimed that the family members of victim suspect that the death was due to dengue fever. However, reports have still not confirmed whether the girl actually died due to dengue fever or not and that they have been waiting for the GMC report.
“At present, the case could be treated as suspected dengue death. We verified with the family that the girl used to also stay at Assoi-Dongri, Chicalim. Our team inspected the area and carried out fogging and spraying of chemicals there,” she said.
Meanwhile, Gurunath Naik, the victim’s (Lavanya Naik) father claimed that though he had taken his daughter to the Chicalim Hospital for a blood test, the lab officials gave a negative report. But when he conducted similar blood check in a private lab in Vasco, the report confirmed that his daughter was suffering from dengue fever.
“Firstly, the Chicalim Cottage Hospital has no emergency facility for such patients as they treat everyone equally and not on priority even if the patient is in need of immediate attention. Secondly, my daughter could have been saved if the Chicalim hospital authorities had given the correct report in time. I would have made all possible arrangements to ensure that my daughter was saved,” he said.
Meanwhile, taking serious cognizance of the dengue death, the Mormugao Municipal Council too swung into action and has formed teams to assist the health officials to take up fogging and spraying of chemicals in all wards in its jurisdiction and special attention has been given to the wards where malaria or suspected dengue cases have been reported.
