Union Territory of Puducherry has witnessed an unusual rise in number of dengue positive cases this year, a senior health department official said.

Director of Puducherry State Health Mission T Kalimuthu stated this while addressing medical officers at a training programme for clinical management of patients suffering from dengue here today.He said dengue was well under control in Puducherry till last year. But the Union Territory was now facing an unusual spurt in the number of positive cases, he said.He stressed the need for coordinated working of line departments to combat dengue and said meetings were held with officials of Departments of Education, PWD and Local Administration

Information education and communication activities were intensified in all urban hot spots of dengue to control its spread, Kalimuthu said.He said four sentinel surveillance centres were opened exclusively to probe cases referred from peripheral pockets.State Programme Officer of National Vector borne Disease Control Programme V Sundararaj, said intermittent rains were the major cause of high incidence of dengue here this year.Medical officers from the Primary and Community Health Centres here and also from Siddha hospital attended the training programme.