Chennai Corporation to assess dengue awareness level among residents

“The questionnaires would consist of 10 questions in multiple choices format on breeding cycle of Aedes mosquitoes and symptoms of dengue fever,” a Chennai Corporation official said.

According to the official, the ‘examination’ on the dengue is one of the several awareness campaigns conducted by the civic body on dengue disease and source reduction in the city. Recently we have conducted campaigns where school and college students participated, the official said.

When asked about the rationale behind distributing questionnaires, the official explained that the residents throw away dengue awareness pamphlets, which were distributed to them, without even reading them. “When the residents are asked to choose the correct answer, we could assess the awareness level among them. The residents would also remember the questions and their answers if given in an examination format,” the official added.

The questionnaire would be distributed to all the 17 lakh houses in the city from next week by health department workers. “The answered questionnaires will be collected from the residents the next day. If they have marked the wrong answer, our staff will correct them and explain the answer in detail politely so that the resident could not forget the breeding science of the mosquitoes,” according to the official.

Meanwhile, the official requested the residents to clear stagnated fresh water at the back of refrigerators, flower pots and others once in every three or four days as the eggs of mosquitoes attains larva stage that time. “The residents should also close the toilet bowls if they go out for many days,” the official said.