Kolkata: Salt Lake municipal body gears up to tackle dengue

We have launched a door-to-door campaign through our health workers and 200 nurses: Krishna Chakraborty, Chairperson of Salt Lake municipality

With pre-monsoon showers drenching Kolkatans in recent times and only a couple of days left for the monsoon to arrive in Kolkata, the Bidhannagar Municipality has started an awareness drive to protect the citizens of the satellite township from all vector-borne diseases.

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Given last year’s dengue outbreak, the municipality, understandably, does not want to take any chances this year.

Giving details, Krishna Chakraborty, the chairperson of Bidhannagar municipality, said, “We have launched a door-to-door awareness campaign. Our health workers and 200 nurses from the state health department are spreading awareness on how to prevent vector-borne diseases such as dengue and malaria.”

She also claimed that the awareness drive was a success because the workers have already found dengue larvae at a house in AC Block in Salt Lake. There were, however, no reports of anyone being infected with these diseases till date.

“People could have been infected had the awareness campaign not been in place,” she added. She also said that as a standard measure, the health workers carried out fogging in up to 50 houses in all directions from the one where dengue larvae were detected. Besides, bleaching powder was also sprayed in the area, she said.