The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has waged a war to combat the deadly viral infection dengue. Dengue is a mosquito-borne monsoonal infection which is cause due to the bite of aedes aegypti mosquito. The mosquito can be recognized by white markings on its legs and a marking in the form of a lyre on the upper surface of its thorax.
Dengue generally occurs in sub-tropical or tropical climate because this is the ideal climate for dengue mosquitoes to breed. An estimated 400 million dengue infections occur worldwide each year, with about 96 million resulting in illness. The main symptom of dengue is fever, which is often accompanied with nausea, vomiting, rash, aches and pains (eye pain, typically behind the eyes, muscle, joint, or bone pain)
The civic body team recently visited a locked house at Raipur Mondal area in Ward 99 of the KMC, The Statesman reported. Since the house was locked and has had no residents for long, the KMC workers had to use a ladder to climb up to the terrace of the building where they spotted two water tanks with their covers open. To stop the open tanks from becoming a potential breeding ground of mosquitoes, they were covered by KMC officials.
The councillor of the ward, Debashish Mukherjee, said “The house has remained locked for long. We did not know how to conduct a dengue drive here since access to the place was not possible. I’ve informed the police, vector control team of KMC, lightning department, parks and squares department. Ladders were arranged and the workers went up to the roof.”
“People were affected with dengue in our area earlier and we don’t want it to happen again. While our area particularly has not witnessed a dengue case till now, but people have been affected with the disease in the adjoining areas. We had no clue that such open tanks were on the terrace of this building,” a resident said. Meanwhile, Mr Atin Ghosh, KMC deputy mayor and member mayor-in-council (MMIC), Health, held a meeting with officials of Borough 10. The Statesmen said the Borough has been identified as the most vulnerable since the number of dengue cases is high in this area.
Commenting on the same, the MMIC said, “A Borough meeting was called where we discussed measures that need to be immediately taken to prevent any further dengue cases in the five wards of this Borough.” Mr Ghosh added: “We are adopting a three pronged tactics that includes cleaning of waste by conservancy workers. A file has to be maintained, and money for the purpose needs to be used from councillor’s fund or Borough chairman’s fund.”
“Secondly, the locked houses that are lying without maintenance and have no residents to look after them will be accessed by KMC workers. The locks will be broken and cleaning will be carried out. We have provisions in the KMC Act to access such properties. The keys will be kept with us. Any officer found disobeying orders will be suspended,” he said.
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