BHUBANESWAR: With dengue spreading its wings fast in Angul, the Health Department has asked the Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd to pull up its socks and undertake both short and long-term measures to contain the outbreak. Health Secretary Anu Garg shot off a letter to the MCL CMD asking for immediate preventive measures in the collieries and workshops where stacked up discarded tyres, defunct machineries and dumped vehicles have emerged as breeding ground for the vectors. All such sites must be immediately covered to prevent accumulation of water. The Department also directed that cleaning operations must be intensified and workforce should be doubled to ensure disposal of discarded containers, cleaning of drains and bushy areas in and around MCL. Such operation must be taken up every 3-4 days for next six months. Sanitation drive apart, regular supply of water through tankers to prevent storage of water have been advised. Garg has also asked for enhancement of lab facilities at Nehru Satabdi Hospital with ELISA reader and washer for blood sample examination. Angul has been the epicentre of the outbreak. Of a total 97 blood samples tested in two government medical colleges and hospitals, 53 turned positive. Twenty-two of these positive samples came from Angul alone where, so far, 175 dengue cases have been detected. Till Wednesday, a total of 295 samples have been found positive out of 721 which were tested. The death toll has risen to 15 with one more death reported from Apollo Hospitals here on Tuesday evening. The deceased has been identified as Brahmananda Pradhan (33), a resident of Rairakhole.
Comments
0 comment