Jharkhand: Dengue claims one life in Seraikela

JAMSHEDPUR: A 25-year-old woman in the adjoining Seraikela-Kharsawan district died of dengue while an 18-year-old girl tested positive for the mosquito-borne disease here in the past 24 hours, leaving the health workers, who are already grappling with the Covid-19 pandemic, extremely worried.
The district surveillance officer of Seraikela-Kharsawan, Jhujhar Majhi, said the deceased, Puja Sahu, a resident of Rajnagar block, was tested positive for dengue at the Tata Main Hospital (TMH) where she was undergoing treatment since July 6. She died on Thursday night.
“As an immediate measure, fogging and spraying of larvicide and bleaching power was done at the house of the deceased and in the vicinity. Besides, door-to-door surveillance has been launched to detect potential breeding ground of mosquitoes and destroy them,” Majhi said.
In Steel City, an 18-year-old girl, who is a resident of ECC flats in Kadma, was diagnosed with dengue on Thursday and is undergoing treatment at TMH, said East Singhbhum district additional chief medical officer, Sahir Pall.
Pall did not disclose the identity of the patient and said a meeting will be convened shortly with officials of the three urban civic bodies — Jamshedpur, Jugsalai and Mango — along with representatives of companies operating in the city to work out a joint mechanism to carry out an anti-dengue drive.
“Our health volunteers will visit every house with the dual purpose of detecting and destroying the breeding ground and also spread awareness among the residents to keep their surrounding areas clean to stop mosquitoes from breeding," Pall added.
The sub-health centres, community health centres and public health centres will coordinate with the volunteers in carrying out the awareness drives on containing vector-borne diseases such as malaria, dengue and chikungunya in the blocks, an official of the National Vector Borne Disease Control Program office said.
Recently, dengue larva was found at 1,550 houses in the command area of Tata Steel following which measures were taken by the Tata Steel Utilities and Infrastructure Services Ltd to destroy them.
"Stagnant water is a potential source of breeding of the mosquitoes. Hence, residents should make regular cleaning of refrigerators, water coolers, empty pots, water tanks, dustbins and discarded tyres," Pall added.