“As a proactive measure, health centres have been asked to conduct a survey of areas having patients coming with complaints of a fever, and to check if there are more such patients, and that immediate measures are taken,” said Dr Kalpana Mahatme, chief medical officer in charge of the national vector-borne disease control programme (NVBDCP) in Goa.
Mahatme said that the advisory has been issued by her section and that the centres should conduct rapid tests to know whether the fever is due to malaria or dengue. The centres can also have outpatient departments (OPDs) for patients with fever.
After flood water recedes, discarded articles, which could be anything — a plastic cup, a bucket or a barrel, even a tire — could serve as a breeding source for mosquitoes.
“An advisory has been issued to centres to undertake source reduction measures immediately. If they find breeding in any of the receptors, they are to be destroyed immediately. Empty the articles that may have water collected in it,” Mahatme said.
Health centres have been advised to undertake this activity with the help of the panchayats as, currently, most health workers have been posted on vaccination duty. They have also been directed to carry out fogging in areas where it is required, she said.
If it is not possible to empty the water collected, for example if it is a puddle or a cavity in a rocky area, anti-larval measures are to be undertaken, Mahatme said.