EDIS Number: BH-20140720-44602-IND
Date / time: 20/07/2014 04:48:04 [UTC]
Event: Biological Hazard
Area: Asia
Country: India
State/County: State of Maharashtra
Location: Bandarpatti [Thane District]
Number of Deads: 1 person(s)
Number of Injured: N/A
Number of Infected: 61 person(s)
Number of Missing: N/A
Number of Affected: N/A
Number of Evacuated: N/A
Damage level: N/A
Description:
Panic gripped large number of people at Mullickbazar and Park Circus areas after a youth died of a mysterious fever on Tuesday. As the youth, a resident of Bandarpatti near Mullickbazar was running a high fever, he was taken to National Medical College Hospital on Monday night for treatment. However, as some relatives of the 17 year old youth preferred to take him back home rather than admitting him, he was taken back home. However, his condition deteriorated and he died the next day. However, the reason for the youth's death could not be determined as he gave little time for diagnosis after the deceased was taken back home from hospital, a medical officer of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation health department who gathered information on the 'mystery fever death' said. The medical officer in charge of KMC's ward 61 confirmed that the youth was not taken to any of the KMC clinics located in the area. Under instructions from the KMC health top brass a Rapid Action Team visited the area and took preventive measures like spraying of insecticides and searching for the mosquito breeding grounds in the locality.
The KMC health department has sounded a red alert in some areas where construction activities are going on in full swing. A recent report released by the KMC health department based on a survey across 144 wards in the city reveals that the civic Rapid Action Team has found a whopping 44211 open masonary tanks across the city, all of them are potential breeding ground for malaria or dengue mosquitoes. This is not all. The KMC RAT force led by the KMC chief entomologist Debasis Biswas has found out 12403 wells, 17460 open surface drains, 4704 uncovered water tanks, 5202 slum clusters and 3802 under construction buildings which could pose a threat to public health as these are highly potential mosquito breeding places. Atin Ghosh, the member, mayor-in-council overseeing the KMC health department is particularly worried over the presence of large number of mosquito breeding grounds at the construction sites. "After a data bank on city's potential mosquito breeding grounds was prepared and presented to me by the health department officials, I was taken aback by the fact that these construction sites possess so much threat for us," Ghosh said.
The MMiC said that notices had been sent to the realtors engaged in construction of multi storeyed buildings asking them not to allow clear, stagnant water anywhere in the construction sites. Ghosh said if the realtors failed to comply to the civic diktat, the KMC could deny them a completion certificate. "We may have to take punitive steps against the realtors who will flout our diktat. After all, we need to get tough on the errant realtors to save the city from an outbreak of the dreaded diseases like malaria or dengue," he added. However, Ghosh assured that the malaria or dengue situation was under control and there was no need for pressing the panic buttons. "We have prepared a data bank based on information we gathered from across the city. Though there has been no outbreak of a malaria or dengue, we need to take guard against potential mosquito breeding grounds," Debasish Biswas, the KMC chief entomologist said.
