Government to screen tourists entering J&K

The step has been taken as a precautionary measure to ensure that the disease is kept under check.

In order to prevent the spread of dengue in the state, the Jammu and Kashmir government has started screening tourists.

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The step has been taken as a precautionary measure to ensure that the disease is kept under check and does not pass on to different parts of the state, officials said in Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday.

A team of doctors has been deployed at Lakhanpur - the entry point to the state, where all the buses and other vehicles are halted to check whether anyone is carrying dengue, they said.

They said it was felt necessary as the first case of positive dengue in a woman from Surankote area of Poonch could have been transmitted from an infected person from outside the state.

The team comprising medical officer and other para-medical staff has been checking every incoming vehicle so that anyone showing symptoms of the disease would be prevented to enter the state, the officials said.

Security forces have also been asked to keep surveillance and report about the disease, they said. However,this facility has not been provided so far for checking the passengers coming to the state by air or train, they said.

Meanwhile, the number of positive dengue cases in Jammu division has risen to eleven. However, the woman from Surankote who was admitted in government medical college here has been discharged after she was cured of dengue.

Jammu Municipal Corporation has also been carrying fogging operations in city and its outlying areas to check mosquito breeding, they said.