EDCD deploys teams to control dengue

Kathmandu, October 24

Epidemiology and Disease Control Division under the Department of Health Services has deployed three medical teams to dengue-hit Jhapa and Chitwan districts.

A team of health workers led by Dr Yedu Chandra Ghimire of the EDCD started its work from Monday in the Jhapa district, officials informed.

Likewise, another team of the health workers, serving at the BP Koirala Institute of Health Sciences, have also been sent to Jhapa to control the epidemic.

The division said 60 people, including some health workers, have tested positive for dengue until Sunday. Health workers deployed in the dengue-hit areas have reported that the number of dengue cases could rise as scores of patients suffering from high fever were undergoing treatment in various health facilities of the district.

A separate team of health workers led by Resham Lamichhane, senior public health officer at the EDCD, has been working in Chitwan, which is highly affected by the deadly disease. “We are doing our best to control the epidemic in Jhapa and Chitwan districts,” said, Dr Gunanidhi Sharma, chief of Epidemiology Section at the EDCD. He claimed that extensive drive was under way to control the spread of the deadly disease in the Chitwan.

Sharma said the health teams will report to the EDCD about latest developments. The EDCD deploys special teams from Kathmandu, when local health authorities fails to control an epidemic.

Acting on instructions from the division, district public health offices of Tarai have launched search and destroy and awareness drive in their respective districts.

He informed that health workers, including female community health volunteers, community workers, teachers and social mobilisers from non-governmental organisations active in the district have been mobilised for the campaign.

The division has been using local and national means of mass communication like radio, television, and print media to raise awareness about the disease.

Doctors say the disease spreads through the bite of an infected Aedes-aegypti and Aedes-albopicitus mosquitoes. The mosquito becomes infected when it takes blood of dengue-infected people.

The disease exhibits symptoms like mild to high fever, severe headache, pain in the eyes and rashes.

Out of 404 dengue cases reported this year, 320 are from Chitwan, 60 from Jhapa and remaining are from other districts including Kathmandu Valley.