BMC to use Covid war rooms to keep track of monsoon-related ailments

In an attempt to track the rise in monsoon-related ailments across the city, the BMC is all set to actively engage its Covid-19 war rooms.

When the pandemic broke out last year, the BMC had only one helpline number – 1916. As cases began to rise, the centralised number experienced jamming. Municipal commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal then initiated ward-wise war rooms to help decentralise Covid-19 management. Senior civic officials have said that the innovation played a key role in curtailing the number of coronavirus cases.

The BMC has now decided to use these war rooms to track monsoon-related ailments. Officials said while Covid cases are on the wane, there has been a rise in malaria, leptospirosis and dengue cases. A senior civic official said, “When a patient contacts the war room, the details get recorded in the system directly and the public health department monitors the situation. This will help us understand if more than normal cases are being reported from a particular area, following which we would be able to solve the problem at the ground level through fumigation drives.” As per the BMC records, Mumbai has recorded 2,122 cases of malaria, dengue and leptospirosis between January 1 and July 10. In 2020, 5,376 cases were reported; in 2019, a total of 5,558 cases were reported.

The number also states that 30 per cent monsoon-related diseases in 2021 have been reported between June and July.

“Even though we have a record of the numbers, we believe it’s incomplete. Most of the time, patients consult private doctors and we don’t get the details,” the official said, adding that patients should report their ailment to the war room even if they choose to consult private doctors.

At present, there is one war room in each of the 24 municipal wards. These war rooms are manned by trained analysts who update the database on a daily basis. This is also available on the BMC dashboard online.

source https://www.freepressjournal.in/mumbai/bmc-to-use-covid-war-rooms-to-keep-track-of-monsoon-related-ailments