Chennai: The expert team of three members appointed by the Ministry of Health Union is visiting Tamil Nadu to oversee vector control measures carried out by health officials in the state.
The team is expected to suggest steps for the prevention and management of dengue fever.
After visiting Ranipet District, the team met health officials in Chennai on Monday.
The team met with patients at the Rajiv Gandhi government hospital here on Tuesday.
The team will visit the neighboring Tiruvallur district on Wednesday.
The team was led by the regional health office and senior regional director of the work welfare Dr.
Rosini Arthur, Chief Medical Officer Dr.
Nirmal Joe and Na Johnson Entomology Consultant Amala Justin.
Last week, after registering more than 1.1 lakh dengue cases throughout the country, the Ministry of Union said he would send the nine-state team and the United States including Haryana, Kerala, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Delhi and Jammu and Kashmir where there is a high dengue case burden.
Tamil Nadu has 493 active cases of dengue fever.
These include 20 cases in Chennai, according to data from the Directorate of Public Health.
Tamil Nadu reported more than 3,000 dengue cases in 2021 compared to around 2,400 years ago.
“There is an increase in the number of cases, but there is also an increase in the number of tests,” said Minister of Health MA Subramanian told reporters.
“We have tested almost three times more people this year than last year,” he said.
“The Northeast Monsoon season is the time for various diseases including dengue fever, but we have maintained a controlled incident.
Every day, the country reports around 20 new cases.
We have intensified the steps to reduce breading sources and improve filtering and testing,” he said .
Cellular camps have been activated to filter people for fever and other diseases, he added.