DENGUE SCARE| 48 Cases Found In 3 Days, Anti-Larva Drone Survey Stopped Due To Lack Of Funds

Indore (Madhya Pradesh): Amid the swiftly increasing dengue menace in the city, the health department’s ambitious project of conducting anti-larvae activities through drone has hit the hurdle of ‘funds’. The project has been shut by the department in a month after not getting funds for the same. “It was a pilot project and has been shut down due to lack of funds. We are not sure whether it will start again or not,” District Malaria Officer Dr Daulat Patel said.

Meanwhile, due to the continuously fluctuating weather conditions, the vector-borne disease has been spreading tentacles across the city with 48 patients found positive in three days. With this, the total number of cases has reached 491, so far. Out of 491 cases, over 100 cases were detected this month. According to district malaria officer Dr Daulat Patel, as far as total number of dengue cases is concerned, 297 men and 194 women were affected by the disease and 58 of them are kids.

“More dengue cases may be detected in coming days and people’s awareness is more important in preventing the disease as dengue mosquitoes breed in clean water and it’s mainly up to the people to prevent waterlogging and wear full-sleeve clothes to avoid the disease,” Dr Patel said. He added that there are 31 active cases in the city and all are being treated at home. While government records show that only 491 cases of dengue were found in the district, number of patients in private hospitals tells a different story.

Over Rs 10 lakh spent on drone survey

The malaria wing has spent over Rs 10 lakh on the drone survey. “The contract of drone survey was given to a Gujarat-based company which was charging Rs 50,000-60,000 for 1 square km area. About Rs 10 lakh have been paid to the company so far,” he said.