Malaria, dengue cases on the rise in Hyderabad

Health Minister Dr. Lakshma Reddy said that malaria, dengue and viral fever cases were on the rise in GHMC limits.

Replying to a question raised by MLC M.S. Prabhakar Rao during Question Hour in Legislative Council on Wednesday, the minister informed that as against 132 cases of Malaria reported last year, a total of 443 cases have come up this year. Similarly, this year 448 people were affected with Dengue. The figure was 310 last year. As many as 11 cases of Chikungunya were reported this year. He also confirmed 13 deaths due to H1N1 virus (Swine Flu) out of 1795 cases reported this year. A total of 93 people died due to Swine Flu since January 1, 2014 which includes 8 deaths in 2014, 66 in 2015, 6 in 2016 and 13 this year.

The minister said there are 2375 staff working for Anti-Larval operations and anti-adult control measures in GHMC. Weekly anti-larval operations are being taken up with 642 teams as per the Pin Point Program (PPP) in domestic, peri-domestic mosquito breeding sources (house to house) every day covering an average 1 lakh to 1.20 lakh houses.

Source Reduction, i.e., checking of overhead tanks, sumps, pit-taps and other water storage containers like drums, tins, pots and unwanted waste materials etc., being taken up on regular basis for identification and removal of Aedes and Anopheles mosquito breeding and the sources are being treated with larvicide Temephos once in a week. He said 42 Anti Larval Operation (ALO) teams with 126 workers are doing Anti Larval Operations in Musi from Attapur to Chaderghat like edge cleaning and spraying.

The minister informed that UMS wing has released 80,150 gambusia fishes in 541 tanks/ponds/wells involving local leaders, corporators and MLAs. A total of 178 acres of water hyacinth has been removed in 29 ponds/tanks.

Lakshma Reddy day-to-day fogging is being done for control of adult mosquitoes with 150 portable and 10 vehicle mounted fogging machines, covering on an average 150 localities per day. He said disease “hot spots” and transmission dynamics were identified for both Dengue and Malaria based on the previous year incidence and GIS Mapping has been done for all the reported cases. Monitoring of larval and adult densities through the entomological teams is being done regularly. (INN