New ‘terminator’ to fight dengue
Is it a truck, is it a train? No, it is a mosquito terminator. The imaginatively named fogging machine is the latest in the MCD’s efforts to counter the threat of spread of dengue that is looming large even as 44 days remain for the Commonwealth Games-2010. Municipal Commissioner K.S. Mehra and divisional railway manager (Delhi),
Ashwani Lohani, launched the “mosquito terminator”, which is essentially a truck with fogging apparatus mounted on a train that will do the rounds along the capital’s railway lines.
An engine carrying the specially-designed low floor wagon on which the truck will be mounted would move around the Ring Rail route of the capital and spray larvicides wherever water is found stagnant.
Mr Mehra said that a large number of persons leave around railway tracks, particularly in JJ clusters and are exposed to aedes and other types of mosquitoes leading to comparatively higher incidence of dengue and malaria.
Meanwhile, Union health minister Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad on Thursday reviewed the situation and directed officials to intensify measures for prevention and control of mosquito breeding. One confirmed death and three suspected deaths due to dengue have been reported in the city so far.
The minister instructed that teams of health ministry officials should visit sites where mosquitoes breeding has been identified and intensify steps for its control and prevention along with the Muncipal Corporation of Delhi(MCD). Mr Azad also stressed on the need for prevention of mosquito breeding in central government hospitals.
Sources in the ministry said these teams would comprise of officials from the National Centre for Disease Control, National Vector-borne Disease Control Programme and the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
The review meeting was attended by Health Secretary Ms Sujatha Rao, DGHS Dr R K Srivastava, Joint Secretary R S Shukla and officials of the National Institute of Communicable Diseases.
According to the MCD, the capital has witnessed over 297 dengue cases and one confirmed death so far. However, the figure is much higher furnished by private hospitals.
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