'Centre must include punitive measures for non-notification'

About 80 per cent of such breeding grounds have been identified in South Kolkata and the rest 20 per cent in North Kolkata. 

MP | 12 Nov 2022 | Kolkata: Deputy Mayor Atin Ghosh demanded that the Centre should bring in provisions of penal measures against health establishments that do not notify dengue. 

"The Centre has classified dengue in the category of notifiable disease. But as there are no punitive measures when it comes to non-notification, the private sector often refuses to do so. Hence, the Centre should include punitive measures similar to what it had done during Covid, which is also a notifiable disease. 

Kolkata is the only city where health workers go door-to-door for data collection. In cities like Bengaluru, Mumbai and Delhi we hardly get any figures of affected persons with dengue," he said. 

Ghosh who heads the Health department of KMC said that South Kolkata has been witnessing the majority of dengue positive cases because there are many under-construction buildings, open drains, ponds, wells etc which are emerging as breeding grounds for dengue mosquitoes. 

About 80 per cent of such breeding grounds have been identified in South Kolkata and the rest 20 per cent in North Kolkata. 

"We have used drones and have stumbled upon several buildings where overhead tanks have no cover. Because dengue mosquitoes breed in clear water, they are dangerous. We have been able to identify several pockets like these which are acting as a potential source for dengue mosquitoes," he said. 

"These findings will help us to plan and work suitably from the beginning of January so that we can destroy such potential sources before the onset of the rainy season next year," Ghosh added. 

He said that his department will write to the state government for bringing a stringent act to take punitive measures against those who have left vacant land, pond etc year after year with the place emerging as a dump yard. 

"We have identified 3854 vacant lands whose owner details are unknown to us. We will do an assessment of the land and generate an assessee number and later whenever the owner will come and claim that particular land to be his/her, the tax against the same and the expenditure for cleaning the same will be levied upon," Ghosh said. 

He also stated that it has been found that a majority of the patients are getting affected with DENV-3 serotype whose treatment protocol is yet to be identified by World Health Organisation (WHO). 

The total number of dengue affected in Kolkata stood at about 6052 on Saturday. 

http://www.millenniumpost.in/kolkata/centre-must-include-punitive-measures-for-non-notification-498951