With as many as 177 cases of dengue having been reported in the city during the last rainy season, checking the spread of the vector- borne disease seems to be a challenging task for health as well as the civic body authorities this time.
Though, officials of both the departments claim to have taken preventive measures to stop the outbreak of the disease this season, yet past experience shows that, despite all such claims, the danger of the outbreak of water-borne diseases remains.
However, last year, dengue had not claimed any life as per health records, but the extent of the spread of the disease had exposed the hollowness of the measures claimed to have been taken to check the spread of the disease.
In 2011, as many as 862 patients were reported to be suffering of dengue. However, in 2012, the number of dengue cases was just eight.
District health officer (DHO) RS Randhawa said that the exercise to check the spread of the bacteria responsible for the spread of dengue larvae had started in June only and the first round has been completed across the city while the second round will be started by the end of this month.
"The health department is doing its best to check the outbreak of the disease but the general public, too, has to play a major role in this direction as water stored in houses is one of the main causes of the people falling prey to this bacterium," he said.
{{/usCountry}}"The health department is doing its best to check the outbreak of the disease but the general public, too, has to play a major role in this direction as water stored in houses is one of the main causes of the people falling prey to this bacterium," he said.
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