BHUBANESWAR: The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Saturday launched a massive awareness campaign on dengue with special focus on slums where the vector-borne disease has started raising its head in the last few weeks.
As many as 58 dengue cases were reported in the last 24 hours, pushing the city tally to 563. Sources said at least 25 per cent of the total cases are from the slum areas. The corporation has destroyed 1,984 breeding sites including 643 sites with larvae in different residential and slum areas so far. However, the situation continues to remain alarming.
The civic body organised awareness rallies in Tarini Basti, Damana Hata Basti, Gandhi Basti, Rental Colony Basti area, Mali Sahi, Patharbandh Basti, Kuli Basti and other slums near Saheed Nagar, Niladri Vihar and Chandrasekharpur to sensitise people on the disease and measures to control it.
BMC Additional Commissioner (Enforcement) Laxmikant Sethi said home visits, counselling, source reduction, slogan and public address system were the important communication tools used to sensitise community members during the awareness drive.
Swachha Sathi volunteers of Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation and NGO workers visited households and organised group discussions with the community members seeking their cooperation in preventing the disease in the city. Fogging was also carried out in the affected areas, he said.