Panaji: The health department has asked health centres in
low-risk areas
, but found to have high
vector density
, to put in more efforts to reduce mosquito breeding in the area before any case of dengue is reported.
Dr Kalpana Mahatme, deputy director in charge of national vector-borne disease control programme, said some areas have been found to have a high incidence of mosquito breeding but dengue has not yet been reached.
Vector density for each area is calculated by comparing the number of houses and containers found with mosquito breeding and the number of houses and containers checked.
“Navelim, Dicarpale, Marcaim, Priol, Cortalim, Upasnagar, Colvale, Casarvanem and Valpoi are all high vector density areas, but no dengue cases are reported yet. We have to work in these areas to bring down the vector density through proactive measures so that if someone gets infected while working in Panaji or Margao, for example, and goes back home, there are no aedes mosquitoes to spread the disease,” she said.“We don’t want to get cases in low-risk areas. Gaondongrim in
Canacona
was a low-risk area, but the virus was imported and passed on. We don’t want a repeat of this
,” she said. The department has also sought cooperation from the public to keep their areas clean to avoid mosquito breeding and also sent out show cause notices to those not found to be cooperating.
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