Report by Michael Rodrigues
Team Mangalorean Udupi

Udupi : Seventeen case of Dengue fever have been identified in the district already. However, necessary measures have been taken by the department for controlling the disease, said district Malaria officer Dr H Ashok at Kallianpur.

He was addressing a symposium on 'Keeping Check on Malaria'  jointly organized by College NSS Unit and JCI Kallianpur  in the college auditorium.

Chikangunya, Dengue and Malaria spread from person to person through mosquitoes, the signs of the disease being intense fever, eyes turning reddish, muscle cramps, pain in the joints, fatigue and swelling, said he further. He requested everyone to contact the local doctors immediately if such symptoms were identified.

Since the mosquitoes breed in stagnant water, care must be exercised for seeing to it that water does not stagnate. It must be ensured that the discarded tender coconut shells, tyres, plastic cans, bottles etc do not have stagnated water in them, said Dr Ashok. 

S A Prabhakar Sharma, chief executive officer of Udupi zilla panchayat inaugurated the programme. JCI president Muralidhar Suvarna, Jaycerette wing president Bhavya, College NSS officer Annamma and Joseph Peter Fernandes were the chief guests.

College principal Dr Neri Cornelio presided over the function.  District information officer Junjanna welcomed the guests.  College student Yaseen proposed a vote of thanks.  Hema compered the programme.