The team of 100 volunteers, who is involved in the Zero Larvae-Defeat Dengue campaign, has successfully completed the second phase of this campaign. This campaign is an initiative of city based NGO, The Arc Foundation, and Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation (CCMC).

The aim of this campaign is to create awareness, instruct preventive measures and come up with cost-friendly solutions for dengue fever in underprivileged communities. “We had several rounds of meetings with City Health Officer (CHO) and head of the various zones in Covai city. We identified the slums in the five zones that are highly prone to dengue and divided our campaign into phases. We are happy with the report card of this campaign,” Baranidharan S., project director of the Foundation, said.

Phase I of this campaign that lasted for five days covered two slums that are located in West Arunachalam Road (R.S. Puram) and in Bommanampalayam (Vadavalli) respectively. Phase II also lasted for five days and covered one slum each in Periyar Nagar, Puliyakulam (East Zone) Gandhimanagar (North Zone), Gandhi Nagar, Sungam (Central Zone), Rajiv Gandhi Nagar, Vadavalli (West Zone), Masthan Sahim St., and Podanur (South Zone).

As part of the campaign volunteers scouted the area, checked the sewage condition and also inspected the gutters. The houses in these areas were also surveyed. Volunteers visited the homes in these areas and cleaned the water stagnated areas in and around the homes. They also interacted with the residents and educated them on the causes, symptoms, treatment and prevention of dengue. As part of their campaign, a three day medical camp was also organized for the residents of the areas covered. On the final day of each phase, the homes in these areas were re-checked by volunteers and colour coding was done based on the larvae presence and cooperation of the residents.

Through this campaign, 10,617 individuals were educated on the preventive measures of dengue. As many as 1,951 larvae breeding spots were treated, of the 2,274 homes that were surveyed 1,342 were found clean and larvae-free, 687 homes were made larvae free with the cooperation of the households and 245 were treated despite reluctance shown by the households.