Private hospitals must share info on dengue patients with Civil Surgeons: Health Minister

Chandigarh: The Health and Family Welfare Minister, Punjab, Dr. Vijay Singla has directed the speeding up of fogging process in order to prevent dengue from spreading.

Chairing a meeting of the State Task Force constituted for controlling dengue, the Minister said that many cases of dengue are being reported from some parts of the country. Apart from this, some cases were also reported from Punjab due to the use of coolers in the households owing to early onset of summer. Therefore, we need to be cautious from now on.

The minister directed the officers of the department that the symptoms of scrubtyphus and laptospyrosis also resemble that of dengue but these affect other organs of the body which has resulted in some deaths during last year due to these two diseases. Hence, special attention needs to be paid from preventing these from spreading.

Disclosing further, the minister said that fogging needs to be accelerated in the cities, towns and villages apart from running a special awareness campaign involving children. For this, special camps must be organized in the schools to prevent dengue. He ordered the officials of Health Department to also involve NGOs in the awareness campaign.

Dr. Singla directed the officers of the Water Supply and Sanitation Department to immediately rectify the malfunctioning R.O. systems anywhere in the state which have been installed to purify water.