Pune: Six cases of the 23 suspected cases of dengue were confirmed on Friday in the city within just five days of 2018. The health department of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) initiated its survey of new mosquito breeding grounds across the city in the beginning of the year, which confirmed the continued menace of breeding mosquito sites.
The Insect-Borne Diseases Control Programme of the health department collected administrative charges of Rs 4.18 lakh between June 19 and December 30, 2017 from private property owners, who had neglected their premises due to which there was mosquito breeding found by civic workers.
In 2017, the health department of the Pune Municipal Corporation treated 43,761 breeding sites with insecticides. Five dengue deaths were reported in 2017.
According to data furnished by the health department of PMC, the ward offices, where the maximum number of mosquito breeding sites were found, included Yerawada-Kalas-Dhanori, Kasba-Vishrambaug, Bhavani Peth and Dhole Patil. However, the health department filed only one court case throughout the year for finding breeding grounds repetitively.
According to officials, barring cases of suspected dengue, no cases of any other communicable disease was registered in the city between January 1 and January 4, 2018.
In 2017, the total cases of suspected dengue registered with the PMC were around 6,390. Of these, 1,691 were confirmed as dengue cases. In spite of several efforts from the health department, cases of dengue have failed to reduce.
Kalpana Baliwant, Head of the PMC Insect Control Department, the department is taking several measures to prevent dengue mosquito breeding.
“It must be understood that a female adult mosquito lays around 450 eggs in her lifetime. If she is infected with dengue, then all the eggs she lays are also infected with the virus.
Hence, eliminating these infected adult mosquitoes is important, for which fogging is very effective,” said Baliwant.
