Rattled by reports of dengue, a mosquitoborne viral fever restricted mainly in urban areas spreading its network in rural Bengal, state chief secretary HK Dwivedi held a meeting with the health department officials, including its principal secretary Narayan Swaroop Nigam and public health experts on

Thursday at the state secretariat, Nabanna. Dengue, caused by Aedes aegypti mosquito bite, has already claimed around seven lives of patients undergoing treatment in different government and private hospitals in the city during the past one week, raising eyebrows of health experts. Most of the victims are from districts, mainly Nadia. A public health expert in the health department at Swasthya Bhavan said that more than 60 per cent of dengue-affected cases are reported from rural areas across districts.

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Around 2,700 dengue cases have already been recorded by mid-July so far in the state while the figure was around 1,700 cases only in July in 2022. The meeting chaired by the chief secretary at Nabanna today sought to chart out ways to curb the menace, laid emphasis on pulse mode cleaning activity, including surveillance with the help of drones. It also suggested a houseto-house survey has been started in all 129 ULBs from 12th June and this will continue till 1st December, 2023 on a fortnightly basis.

Vector control activities have been started in all 129 ULBs from July and it will continue till December, 2023 on a weekly basis. In addition, 624 rapid response teams have been kept ready at the ULB for field level for urgent mitigation of larvae. Fifteen member team/GP has been deployed for 30 days in a month in 3,199 GPs throughout the year for vector control and house visits. Additional manpower has been allowed in 140 peri-urban gram panchayats.

Total 1,32,220 workers have been deployed across the state for vector control activities. Adequate quantities of bio and chemical larvicide have been supplied to all districts. Seventy five lakh larvivorous fishes have been supplied to all districts for control of larvae and an additional 2.25 crore will be supplied in next 30days.

Around 1,500km canals have been brought under annual maintenance contract for periodic cleaning. All the district magistrates have been requested to hold regular review meetings with all stakeholders to prevent dengue.