CALANGUTE: A sudden spurt in dengue cases in Candolim and Nerul has not only scared the locals but has also kept health officials on their toes.
The Candolim Primary Health Centre (PHC) has issued show cause notices under the Goa Public Health Act to a large number of houses which were found to be major mosquito breeding hotspots.
According to Candolim primary health centre (PHC) Health Officer Dr Roshan Nazareth stated that around 50 houses were issued notices in the last month as a preventive measure after 49 suspected cases of dengue were reported. “There were 49 suspected cases at two places, Orda, in Candolim, and one vaddo at Nerul. But of the 49 cases, only one turned out to be a confirmed case. The transmission of the viruses has been well controlled due to the hard work and active collaboration by our team headed by Dr Priyadarshini Pednekar and sanitary inspector Kamlakant Parsekar with the village panchayats of Candolim and Nerul,” Dr Nazareth said.
“Every suspected case is taken seriously and the public are advised to report a positive case immediately to the respective sub health centre or PHC and carry out weekly anti-container drives in their locality/around the house to remove all receptacles that are basically responsible for the spread of dengue as each infected mosquito lays 200-300 eggs that in seven days can release them as infected mosquitoes,” Dr Nazareth said.
All these houses were found to have containers of stagnant water with hundreds of mosquito larvae breeding there. “Some of the houses had three vessels with over 200 mosquito larvae in each. That would have meant 600 infected mosquitoes spreading in the locality. Our staff visits houses in the neighbourhood to check for suspected cases of fever,” he said.
Dr Nazareth also stated that stagnant water in empty containers such as broken buckets, cans, had become fertile breeding sites for mosquitoes and added that there were many constructions underway in the coastal belt.
“With constructions, labour colonies keep multiplying where unsafe water storage facilities lead to mosquito breeding in migrant settlements ,” said Dr Nazareth.
Some malaria cases that were detected were “imported’ cases. There were zero indigenous cases - local to local transmission for the last two years. But 12 imported cases in the jurisdiction of PHC Candolim, were detected by active surveillance by the staff of PHC.
“All cases were reported from construction sites and the patients were migrants and we screen labourers on arrival and follow them up for fever through the construction site supervisor,” he said.