The recent rains in Andhra Pradesh have added to the breeding of mosquitoes and fleas in Vambay Colony, leading to a host of mosquito-borne diseases like malaria, chikungunya and dengue.
Venkateswara Rao, a 39-year-old ailing resident of Vambay Colony recently revealed that the breeding of mosquitoes in the swamps and open drains adjacent to their house is the main reason for the outbreak of several diseases there, The Hindu reported. Rao added that it could be either dengue or viral fever, but at the end of the day, they are suffering a lot.
Notably, residents of Vambay Colony in the city have been suffering from water-borne and vector-borne diseases for over a week due to the rains, which bring with it a host of mosquito-borne diseases and monsoon diseases.
Another resident Gudipudi Dugra told The Hindu that according to doctors, her fever could be typhoid as she feels nauseated from time to time and suffers from abdominal pain. She added that the water supplied to them has deteriorated following floods, giving rise to a number of water-borne diseases. She added that she hopes the government sets up medical camps to conduct thorough check-ups of the patients in the area.
The Hindu report reveals that in order to raise awareness among the people about the diseases, The Democratic Youth Federation of India and the Centre of Indian Trade Unions conducted a drive. This was to highlight the ways to prevent the contraction of water-borne and vector-borne diseases which is prevalent during the monsoon. Furthermore, both organisations demanded that authorities set up medical camps and provide an ambulance for the area to ensure that patients were taken to hospital. The organisations also demanded that open sewers be clean to prevent spread of diseases.
However, as mentioned in The Hindu report, the health officer at the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation said the information of the spread of such diseases in the area had not come to their notice.
Speaking about it, Chief Medical Officer of Health, VMC, Arjun Rao said the Corporation had deployed 28 Mobile Malaria Dengue Clinic (MMDC) teams across the city to conduct surveillance in various areas of the city to identify those suffering from dengue and malaria.
As told by Rao, in the event they come across people with high fever, the teams collect their blood samples and send it to the Department of Microbiology at the Siddhartha Medical College. That is the only department notified by the government, to conduct the tests for malaria and dengue in Krishna district. If the tests prove positive for dengue or malaria, only then is the person considered to have the disease.
Dr Rao said that private hospitals only conduct basic screening tests and base their diagnoses on those tests, which could be false and cause fear among the residents unnecessarily.
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