Cuttack: The municipal corporation has started door-to-door checks to ensure dengue does not spread in the city.

City health officer Umesh Panigrahi said the checks had begun in areas from where dengue cases have been reported and would be extended to all wards.

"The officials will be on the lookout for persons suffering from fever for three or more days to make sure they are checked for dengue to ensure timely treatment," he said.

So far, 42 dengue cases have been reported this season from Jagatpur, Bidanasi, Bidyadharpur, Manglabag, College Square, Kazi Bazar, Alisha Bazar, Gamhandia, Samantasahi and SCB campus.

The outbreak of dengue has been attributed to poor hygiene and sanitation and accumulation of rain water.

Panigrahi said Anganwadi workers, accredited social health activists (ASHAs) and health workers have been pressed into service to check for containers storing stagnant water that could be breeding dengue mosquito larvae.

Starting on Saturday, the door-to-door checks are expected to cover every house within a fortnight, create awareness on dengue larvae and tell residents to ensure old tyres, broken containers and broken items are removed from their surroundings, the health officer said.

"It's an irony that the municipal corporation had not prepared a comprehensive plan to ensure that the disease did not spread again this season even though dengue cases were reported from different parts of the city in the past four years," Telenga Bazar resident Pradeep Sahoo said. "It sat up only after dengue cases were reported in the city."

As part of a special sanitation drive, the civic body had formed teams for intensive bush-cutting, clearing blocked drains and maintaining sanitation in all wards.

Chairman of the corporation's standing committee for health Ranjan Kumar Biswal said spraying of larvicide oil in the drains and areas prone to mosquito breeding is being done intensely.

"Mosquito-repellent fogging operation is also being done," Biswal said.