Malaria down but dengue up this year

Following the hype over sudden rise in cases of malaria last year, health officials of AMC heaved a sigh of relief as the number of cases has come down this year. But the rise in dengue has put them in a spot again.

According to an AMC report, the city witnessed 46 cases of dengue from January to May last year while the figure this year for the same period was 92, indicated a cent per cent rise in such cases.

“We have increased the sample size of blood testing. So, if considered percentage-wise, the total percentage has reduced. In 2012, we tested 888 blood samples from January to May and 5.2 per cent was positive. But, this year, we have collected 2,175 samples in the same period, out of which 4.2 per cent tested positive,” municipal commissioner Guruprasad Mohapatra said on Wednesday.

On the other hand, malaria cases have gone down significantly from 3,167 cases in January-May 2012 to 2,506 this year, indicating a fall of 20 per cent. Mohapatra said the collection of blood samples has increased this year and also 164 private hospitals have been asked to disclose their daily health report.

Utilisation of space under flyovers
Mohapatra revealed that a pilot project has been planned to utilise space under a bridge. A detailed survey has been carried out as a pilot project for four over-bridges and flyovers — Shahibaug railway overbridge, Jivraj Mehta railway overbridge, Soni ni Chali flyover and Thakkarbapanagar flyover.

“The area under the flyover can be utilised as public space like kids’ play area, food court, amphitheatre, parking lot, vegetable/fruit market, senior citizens’ park, etc,” Mohapatra pointed out. The work of constructing public space will be carried out at a cost of Rs121 crore.