Anding District Office feared that day after day of unrelenting rain in March could result in a dengue fever epidemic, as the fever could spread around the entire district. Therefore, on April 9, the district office sent out disease prevention crews comprised of many community volunteers with the mission of dumping out containers that had standing water and, thus, could be breeding mosquitoes. At 6:30am, around 300 people, including community volunteers, Anding District Office employees, and the district’s Cleaning Unit as well as its Public Health Center, gathered at Anding Bao’an Temple, where they started carrying out a mosquito larvae extermination effort. Anding District Chief Liu Shih-Hsiung mentioned that Tainan City Mayor Lai Qing-de had previously announced that the city’s dengue fever had already reached the spreading stage. Therefore, residents were supposed to be thorough in making sure that all potential outdoor and indoor breeding sites were taken care of according to the following four steps: search, dump out, scrub, clean. The above steps are the only way of effectively putting an end to the spreading of dengue fever.
Huang Su-ling, Head Nurse at Anding District Office’s Public Health Center, taught the community volunteers about health education topics. She also explained that if a container is found to be a mosquito-breeding site then a notice must be issued immediately, as homeowners with breeding sites will not be given a period of time to fix the problem.
The event’s introductory meeting finished with a fitting end when District Chief Liu Shih-Hsiung led everyone to shout the slogan “Work Hard for Your Own Benefit” out loud. Following this, community volunteers and employees from the district office started searching for breeding sites, and the District’s Cleaning Unit and Public Health Center worked together in carrying out inspections. All the above was done in order to ensure that the district’s residents can be confident that their hometown is safe and sanitary.
Contact: Cai Chui-qing, Anding District Office, Civil Affairs and Humanities Section; Phone: 5921116 ext. 156