Goemkarponn Desk
CANACONA: Dengue virus has raised its ugly head alarmingly high in Canacona, as the epicenter- Gaondongrim village recorded 70 infections since the outbreak began in the Southernmost taluka.
Health workers/officials along with various authorities always on their toes, finally succeeding in controlling the dreaded virus now on decline in Canacona taluka.
Canacona has presently accounted for 70 dengue cases with almost all the infections (barring a couple of cases elsewhere) are detected in Gaondongrim village, Canacona Health Officer Dr. Jose Tavares, informed.
‘With the active cooperation of Deputy Collector, Block Development Officer, Health Staff/Officials are working very hard, not leaving anything to chance and have been regularly conducting cleanliness drives not only in the affected areas, but targeting all the surroundings and neighbourhood places besides carrying out fumigation of the areas. We are regularly in the field advising people to stop storing water in any form. The result is, there is a heavy decline of the cases, and nowadays only two or one case is being reported, and the infections are mostly from Gaondongrim village’, Dr. Tavares.
According to Dr. Tavares, with the health staff working tirelessly has formed different teams in coordination with the Anganwadi workers/Sevikas, Government Primary Teachers, conducts awareness visits and cleanliness drives amidst the residents/residences.
Dr. Tavares stating that no serious dengue case is reported so far in the taluka, and it takes around 7-8 days for the patient to recover from Dengue Fever, further informed that one each Dengue infections found in Amone (Poinguinim) and Loliem areas, besides the two virus infections found in a single house at Palolem has recovered since than, and there are no other dengue infections reported from elsewhere in the taluka, except for Gaondongrim village, where too with the various precautionary measures in force, the virus seems to be on the decline ‘Only 2 or 1 case of dengue fever is being reported from previous several people with fever coming for treatment from Gaondongrim village. With our efforts and cooperation from the residents, we expect to put a full stop in further dengue infections in Canacona soon.’, Dr. Tavares said.
Different Health Workers teams formed by Canacona Health Centre, are working to clean drains and tanks near people’s houses, besides these workers are also assigned other tasks, with a sole aim to control dengue.
Dr. Tavares further informed that fogging or disinfectant spraying is going on and undertaken everywhere in the present or this years affected areas and also in the areas where dengue cases got treated last year, disinfectant spraying, cleanliness drives to destroy the virus growth areas are conducted all over the taluka areas.
Dr. Tavare informed that the during summer months, due to unavailability of sufficient water, people’s habits of storing water in open tanks has initially led to outbreak of Dengue Virus (from 21st May), and with great difficulty (it was a difficult task to convince people not to store water in open, as there was heavy shortage of water than), this water-storage habits were discarded only after monsoon began, but than dengue virus survived in accumulations of rainwater in various form. Health Teams worked daily in eradicating this too, and the results have already begun to show, with a heavy decline in new infections.
Stating if the dengue virus needs to be eradicated fully, it is very essential for the people not only to cooperate but also participate, Dr. Tavares appealed to people not to panic, but do everything possible not to facilitate and completely eradicate mosquito breeding facilities in and around their surroundings.
