Chennai: Following the death of a student at Anna University due to scrub typhus, higher education minister P Viswanathan on Sunday said the state govt ordered all universities and colleges across the state to conduct a cleanliness drive to ensure safe campuses for students.Replying to a question about the death, Viswanathan said there were rumours that the fourth-year student died of dengue fever. “This is not true. I visited the campus and spoke with officials. The loss of a student was unfortunate,” he said.The minister said the state govt ordered a mass cleaning drive and health screening for students at Anna University. “Parents need not panic. We will extend all help concerning medical care and cleanliness to all educational institutions,” the minister said.Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) has also stepped up anti-larval and dengue-prevention measures to control mosquito breeding. In Sept, the city reported 654 dengue cases. Following this, the civic body deployed 3,597 workers for door-to-door inspections. More than 1,000 domestic breeding checkers have been deployed this month to inspect premises for five days, followed by a sixth-day larval mop-up exercise to eliminate mosquito-breeding sources.The civic body has intensified measures, including inspections of houses, construction sites, commercial establishments, hospitals and vacant plots, while removing stagnant-water sources and applying larvicide and MLO oil. So far, the GCC has imposed penalties totalling ₹5.56 lakh on commercial establishments and households.On Sunday, measures were carried out at 16 educational institutions and hostels, including Anna University Hostel, Ethiraj College, Victoria Girls Hostel, MGR University, Jain College, and Indian Maritime University. GCC commissioner G S Sameeran said the corporation had been closely tracking the trend for two months.“In Aug, we recorded 4,400 fever cases, and this month it has gone up to 4,600. About 95% of cases are self-limiting, and 5% need hospitalisation. When we studied the pattern, we found that the numbers were higher in institutions,” he added.Sameeran, who inspected the Victoria Hostel campus, said 100 college volunteers had joined the dengue-prevention effort and that 650kg of tyres and containers was collected from the Victoria campus alone.The corporation has organised special medical camps across the city. Doctors at UPHCs, UCHCs, and health and wellness centres have been assigned case-management duties and are tracking fever cases.
