CHENNAI: The city has recorded 104 cases of dengue since January 2017 and the Chennai Corporation is facing difficulties in detecting the cases as people are approaching pharmacies rather than approaching doctors. It is learnt that the Chennai Corporation has stopped the flow of over-the-counter drugs after having meeting with pharmacy owners.
City Health Officer Dr N A Senthil Nathan told Express that people often subdued the symptoms like fever by self medication. This makes it difficult to identify cases of dengue, he added.
“The intermittent rains and fluctuating temperatures have spiked cases of fever in the recent days but dengue cases confirmed in relation are very small in number,” said Dr Senthil Nathan.
Since the number of confirmed cases remain small, a pattern hasn’t emerged and the cases remain to be sporadic, he said.
The focus is now on tracking the cases rather than trying to prevent the disease as it is impossible to sanitise people in every nook and corner, said Senthil Nathan Meanwhile, the Chennai Corporation has urged the people not to downplay the symptoms of dengue and report rainwater stagnation to curtail the spread of disease. “Most people are apprehensive of taking help from our ground workers to check for domestic water stagnation. Only when a case from their area props up they become serious and cooperate with our workers,” he said.