Mysuru: District in-Charge Minister Dr. H.C. Mahadevappa held a meeting with officials of the District Administration, Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) and Zilla Panchayat (ZP), pertaining to vector-borne diseases especially Dengue at Government Guest House in Nazarbad here this morning.

District Vector-borne Diseases Control Officer Dr. S. Chidambara, who provided information to the District Minister said that till April, 2017, 26 cases of suspected dengue cases were reported and as rains began from April end, 159 suspected Dengue cases and 12 Chikungunya cases were reported till June, 2017 and added that it would go up to 200 cases by this month end, which would be known only after receiving the ELISA Test reports.  

Dr. Chidambara said that out of the total 1,265 blood samples collected from Mysuru and other districts, 996 samples were from Mysuru district and 269 samples were from other districts. He said that out of 996 blood samples from Mysuru district, 159 (98 from Mysuru city and 61 from rural places)  samples tested positive for dengue and 124 samples from other districts have also tested positive for dengue.

A total of 283 cases have been declared positive by the District Vector-borne Diseases Control Officer. He said that more number of suspected Dengue cases were being reported from Kuvempunagar, Ramakrishnanagar, Hebbal and Saraswathipuram in city and added that precautionary measures were being taken to control mosquitoes besides highlighting the co-operation from the public in helping to keep the disease under control.

District Minister Dr. H.C. Mahadevappa, who spoke, said that the disease was under control and instructed the officials concerned to take  preventive measures to stop breeding of mosquitoes besides instructing the officials to create awareness among the public through Information, Education and Communication.

The Minister instructed the officials of the District Administration, MCC and ZP to form a team and create a massive awareness programme through radio, advertisements, distribution of pamphlets, group discussions etc. besides instructing them to form a Co-ordination Committee involving officials from the MCC, District Administration, ZP and other private organisations to tackle the menace of   mosquitoes.

Mayor M.J. Ravikumar, Deputy Commissioner D. Randeep, MCC Health Standing Committee Chairman Mahadevappa, MCC Health Officers Dr. Ramachandra and Dr. Nagaraj, District Health Officer Dr. B. Basavaraj, MCC Commissioner G. Jagadeesha, former Mayor R. Lingappa and ZP CEO P. Shivashankar were present.