BMC to launch mobile app for monsoon diseases

The mobile app, which will be officially launched on Tuesday, will not only share information on diseases, their symptoms, precautions to be taken but will help residents with addresses of civic health centres, clinic and hospitals.

Mumbaikars will soon get information related to diseases like malaria, H1N1 (swine flu), dengue and chikungunya on their mobile phones. In a first, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will launch a free mobile application dedicated to ‘monsoon related diseases’. The mobile app, which will be officially launched on Tuesday, will not only share information on diseases, their symptoms, precautions to be taken but will help residents with addresses of civic health centres, clinic and hospitals.

The app will be available for free on Google play. It has been developed with the help of the community health centre of Lokmanya Tilak Municipal General Hospital, Sion and Thakur Institute of Management studies in Kandivali. According to deputy executive health officer, Dr Minni Khetarpal, the mobile app is timely and will benefit several patients who have fever and other symptoms but cannot understand how to tackle the infection. “We have provided information on all monsoon-related illnesses such as dengue, typhoid, malaria, gastroenteritis, hepatitis and other water-borne infections that rise in this season,” she said.

In September, three people succumbed to dengue and two to leptospirosis. BMC hospitals recorded 164 dengue cases, 418 malaria, 34 leptospirosis, 286 gastroenteritis, 70 hepatitis and 27 H1N1 cases this month.