jaipur

Updated: Oct 11, 2018 19:51 IST

With three more persons testing positive in Jaipur, the number of people infected with the mosquito-borne zika virus reached 32, the health department said on Thursday. Additional director (rural health) Dr Ravi Prakash Mathur said, “There is information of three more zika virus positive cases, but documents are yet to come.”

Meanwhile, chief secretary DB Gupta, on Thursday, called a high level meeting at the secretariat where he addressed all district collectors and health department officials over video conferencing.

Gupta directed the district collectors to review the situation of seasonal diseases themselves instead of junior officers and also asked to cross-check the work done by the health department. He also directed all chief medical and health officers to see that no doctor goes on leave at this time.

He further added that if there are cases of any seasonal disease in an area, then efforts should be made to check the spread of the disease to other areas.

The chief secretary directed officers to ease the panic among the people about zika as it is not fatal except in pregnant women in their first trimester. He said test of zika virus is available at Sawai Man Singh hospital in Jaipur apart from Jhalawar, Bikaner, Jodhpur and Kota.

Health department additional chief secretary Veenu Gupta said the period till November 15 is critical for the seasonal diseases. In order to check the rise, health checkup of people suffering from various seasonal diseases in affected areas in all districts and campaigns to destroy the larvae are on.

She directed officials to take strict action if breeding of mosquitoes is found in coolers or water tanks at homes and impose a penalty.

Veenu said residents of Shatri Nagar area store water in containers for a long period that result in mosquito breeding. To resolve the issue, she suggested Public Health and Engineering Department (PHED) to make provision for additional water supply in the area.

PHED principal secretary Rajat Sharma said Veenu informed people in Shatri Nagar area store water to meet their demand. “It has been decided to supply few water tankers in these areas to fulfil the need for seven to 10 days,” he said. Mishra said PHED superintending engineer has been sent to the area to assess the situation.

Apart from DB Gupta and Veenu, animal husbandry additional chief secretary Khemraj Choudhary, national health mission chief Naveen Jain, medical education secretary Ashutosh Pednekar, SMS Medical College principal Dr Sudhir Bhandari and other officials were present at the meeting.

It is to be mentioned that from September 22 to October 9, a total of 42,775 houses in eight wards of Shastri Nagar have been surveyed, in which larvae was found in more than 15,000 sites. Total 2,643 patients and 1,694 pregnant women with fever were identified of which blood and urine samples of 486 patients and 225 pregnant women were collected for further investigation.