Cuttack, July 2: The district administration has asked officials of the municipal corporation, the chief district medical officer and others to remain alert and take preventive measures to contain the outbreak of dengue and other waterborne diseases.

At a co-ordination meeting on the prevention of dengue and other waterborne diseases, collector Nirmal Chandra Mishra reviewed the action plan of various agencies here today.

Mishra directed officials of the Cuttack Municipal Corporation to take preventive steps with extra focus on the localities from where jaundice and dengue cases had been reported in the past two years. The officials have been asked to stress on sanitation, awareness and early detection and treatment of dengue cases at these vulnerable pockets.

Besides, health officials at the district level as well in the city have been asked to submit a surveillance report on suspected or positive cases on a weekly basis.

Private nursing homes and hospitals will also be asked to furnish reports on persons being admitted with dengue symptoms for effective monitoring.

The officials of the public health engineering department have been asked to ensure that there is no water contamination in the water supply lines due to waterlogging.

"The corporation officials have already prepared an action plan and the awareness drive started yesterday. Various departments and agencies have been asked to ensure that there was no accumulation of water at construction sites," said Mishra.

The chief district medical officer has been asked to set up a rapid response team at district headquarters and the community health centre level for better management of dengue cases.

The move came in the wake of apprehensions that there might be a re-run of the dengue situation in which over 1,500 cases had been reported in the district in 2013.

A total of 1,073 cases were reported from various places under the civic body in 2013. In 2014, 297 cases were reported in the district, of which 155 were from the city.

The officials of SCB Medical College and Hospital have also been asked to set up a dedicated dengue ward for patients not only from the city but also from across the state. "We will shortly set up a 30-bed dedicated dengue ward, and keeping in view the situation, the beds can be increased to 200 in case of dengue outbreak in the state," said SCB's emergency officer B.N. Moharana.

"We have provided five sanitary staff members extra in all the 59 wards to carry out the destruction of discarded tyres, earthen pots and unused items, which can be the breeding sites for the aedes aegypti mosquito that spreads dengue," said city health officer P.K. Pradhan.