Domestic breeding checkers of the Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation clearing waste water from a barrel on the terrace of a building.
The Health Department has intensified vigil against vector-borne diseases across Coimbatore district in the wake of sporadic rains.Deputy Director of Health Services P. Balusamy told The Hindu that domestic breeding checkers (DBC) are conducting door-to-door visits in Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation (CCMC) limits and other parts of the district based three parameters: in-patient (IP) fever cases, dengue positive cases and mosquito larval index.“DBCs conduct house visits daily at places from where multiple cases of IP fever or dengue are getting reported. Apart from the larval index, they also cover places with high number of IP fever cases over the past three months,” he said.There are 2,052 DBCs across the district, out of which 1,200 people are deployed in CCMC limits, 240 in all the 12 blocks (20 each), 309 in town panchayats and 303 in municipalities.According to him, rapid response teams are sent to locations with more IP fever cases to conduct mobile fever camps. A team comprises a medical officer, a pharmacist and a staff nurse.“At present, there is no alarming increase in IP fever or dengue cases in the district, compared to the same period last year,” he said. The average number of active dengue cases in city limits were between three to four as against one to two cases in rural areas during the past one week. There were no ‘hotspot’ areas with alarmingly high numbers of cases, he said.He added that mass cleaning was also being conducted at locations that require clearing of waste facilitating mosquito breeding. Water gets collected in materials such as coconut shells, plastic containers, disposable plastic tumblers, abandoned tyres during intermittent rains, creating suitable breeding ground for mosquitoes, especially aedes aegypti – the primary vector of dengue and a ‘day-biter’.The Health Department has appealed to the public to keep their houses and premises free of mosquito breeding sites during the southwest monsoon. Published - July 01, 2026 08:23 pm IST
