The West Bengal health department on Wednesday issued a 14-point advisory for tackling dengue, which includes regular visits by trained civic personnel to locate and destroy mosquito-breeding sites.
The advisory has asked the hospital heads to regularly monitor the number of dengue patients being admitted and the number of dengue cases each hospital has treated this season.
The two sets of figures, officials said, will help the authorities assess whether the situation is improving or worsening.
The government hospitals have been asked to run fever clinics, separate from OPD clinics. A register of fever patients has to be maintained so they can be better monitored.
The advisory calls upon the hospital authorities to keep their premises clean so mosquitoes do not get a chance to breed.
Dengue is caused by a virus that is spread by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which can breed even in a coin-sized blob of stagnant water. Health experts said the advisory had come late in the day as hundreds of people are already down with dengue.
A senior official in the state health department said advisories were issued earlier, too. Wednesday’s advisory contains the same points as the earlier ones and has been issued to stress the need to follow them.
“Entomological visits (visits by trained vector-control staff) are important as they help identify mosquito- breeding pockets. Based on the findings, a strategy has to be prepared,” the official said.
Many residents in Kolkata, Salt Lake and Dum Dum have said such visits have been infrequent this year.
An official in the state health department said 827 new dengue infections were reported across the state on Tuesday.
The advisory also calls for real-time availability of blood test reports of dengue patients admitted in hospitals, weekly meetings of all staff involved in treating a dengue patient; and close monitoring of blood banks.
