12 task forces,fogging by fire brigade tankers to tackle dengue

New Delhi, Oct 3 (UNI) Waking up to the threat of dengue in the capital, which has witnessed a sharp increase in the number of persons suffering from the disease in recent weeks, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) today announced the setting up of 12 dengue task forces and deployment of fire brigade tankers for outdoor fogging among a host of measures to tackle the deadly virus.

Addressing a press conference here, Chairman of the Standing Committee of the MCD, Jai Kishen Sharma and Leader of the House Jitender Kochar said,''In order to tackle the threat of dengue on a war footing, the health staff of the MCD will, for the next one month devote full time for the dengue control programme.

All the staff have been directed to work on Sundays, also to cover houses which could not be covered during the working days.'' Later, Delhi Mayor Farhad Suri told reporters that in order to accelerate efforts to carry out outdoor fogging in all areas of Delhi, the MCD planned to deploy four fire tankers in the task.

''Also, apart from the 12 vehicles mounted with fogging machines, one of each has been deployed for each MCD zone, we also plan to acquire in the next few days four additional machines on rent. These could be used in areas more prone to dengue,''Mr Suri said.

Mr Suri said that as a step towards tackling the threat of dengue, the MCD also planned to acquire Temphose granules to check mosquito breeding in coolers in the capital.

''With the use of these granules, it is possible to check breeding of mosquitoes for a month. Preventing mosquito breeding in coolers would be a significant step towards tackling dengue as 95 per cent of spreading of dengue is through mosquito breeding in water coolers,''he said.

Besides the above measures, medical superintendents of all hospitals had been directed to notify dengue cases within 24 hours.

Also, the Health department of the MCD has requested the Director, Primary Health Education of the MCD, to give directions to schools to read out instructions for the prevention and control of dengue fever during the prayer session in the schools of the Corporation.

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