Dengue awareness campaign kicks off

Bhubaneswar: With dengue being one of the fastest spreading vector-borne diseases among the city dwellers, the Centre for Youth and Social development (CYSD) in collaboration with PLAN India and Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) launched a month-long campaign on Dengue Awareness here June 5.
Covering more than 70 habitations in 10 urban slums of the city, around 150 volunteers and 20 experts would spread awareness about the disease.
Plan India aims to cover around 1 lakh households with a door-to-door campaign and create awareness among the slum and non-slum high risk zones.
As many as 120 social workers along with 10 supervisors kicked off the campaign by taking out a march from CYSD office premises to the Salia Sahi near Mayfair Nagar.
Ex-deputy mayor and corporator Bharati Singh, CYSD Chairman Prafulla Kumar Sahoo, Plan India member Tussarkanti Das, ADMO Dr. Sandipana Pati and Deputy Commissioner Lalatendu Sahoo were the guests on the occasion.
BMC mayor Ananta Narayan Jena flagged off the campaign van that would rove around the streets to alert city dwellers on the causes and prevention of dengue.
Meanwhile, with the onset of monsoon imminent, danger of dengue is looming large in Odisha, especially here in the city as two cases have already been reported at Capital Hospital by June 5.
The public health administration has initiated efforts to spread awareness among the people by advising them to keep their surroundings clean. Additional director of Public and Health department is leading the campaign with BMC.
In his media address, Capital Hospital director Manoranjan Das said, “Only two patients suffering from dengue are admitted here and they are recovering well. Three people were admitted and no new cases have been registered after that”.
“We have a separate ward dedicated to dengue patients which has 8 beds with all facilities. Our medicine specialists are already deployed there”, he added.
CYSD is a non-government and non- profit organisation established to improve the quality of lives of tribal, rural and urban poor in the state, with primary focus on eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, ensuring social inclusion and justice, good governance and citizen’s right.