Submit ATR on dengue menace in TN: HC to public health dept

The Madras High Court Bench today directed the public health department to submit an action taken report as early as possible on the steps taken to control dengue in Tamil Nadu.
Justices S Tamilvanan and V S Ravi gave the direction to Joint Director Saravanan while hearing a review petition filed by one K K Ramesh.
The Joint Director, who appeared in the court,submitted that the dengue-causing 'A D S' mosquito is present only in houses where water is stored in buckets or pots. It does not breed in stagnant water outside homes where water is in touch with soil. Nor is dengue caused by the mosquito from sewage water. It is essential that residents ensure there is no stagnant water in homes, he said.

He said government had launched a campaign in Rajapalayam, where eight people died of dengue. Twelve others in this town had succumbed only to virus fever and not dengue.
The JD also submitted that most virus fever victims did not take medication from professional doctors but had approached quacks for treatment, leading to their deaths.
The government had arrested 12 quacks and warned medical shops against giving medicines without prescription. Now a lot of people were coming to the government hospital, a sign of increasing awarness among people, he said.

The JD informed the court that dengue had been brought under control due to intense campaign and was confident the situation would improve in a week and normalcy would return.

He said detection of impact of dengue on the body itself would take one week to 10 days. If those affected took water or liquid regularly,the impact would be weakened.
The petitioner submitted that 20 people died of dengue, chikungunya and viral fever and government had not taken steps to control them. Hence he sought a direction from the court to health department officials to take steps to control the disease.
Earlier, the court closed the PIL filed by Ramesh after the Health Secretary had submitted that steps had been taken to control the dengue menace
Ramesh, while stating the above reasons, had sought strong action taken against the Health Secretary for 'misleading' the court.