Steps on to prevent dengue outbreak

Thiruvananthapuram: The district health administration and the City
Corporation have started taking control measures to check the
increasing incidence of dengue fever in the district. Five to 15 cases
of dengue are being reported from various parts of the district on a
daily basis now.While there has been no outbreak as such, cases are
being reported in large numbers typically from the areas within the
Corporation limits and also from Malayinkeezh and Vilappil, in
particular.The total number of dengue fever cases reported this year
in the district till Tuesday was 447. Though dengue incidence is
usually low during the months of November-December, the rain in the
first two weeks of December had led to the spurt in dengue fever,
health officials said.A disease surveillance meeting held last week
had decided to intensify fogging and spraying activities and to
encourage source reduction. In rural areas, Accredited Social Health
Activists (ASHAs) were engaged in vector-control activities while in
urban areas, people are apathetic to such activities and expect the
civic authorities to handle everything, officials said.From last year,
ward-level health and sanitation funds given by the National Rural
Health Mission (NHRM) were being distributed to the wards in the
Corporation area also. The authorities have decided to disburse the
fund again to intensify control activities.The Corporation has
launched vector-control activities utilising a new fogging machine.
The District Medical Officer said more fogging and spraying machines
were being purchased.The disease is essentially an urban phenomenon,
given the breeding nature of the vector spreading it, the Aedes
Aegypti species of mosquitoes.Aedes is a peri-domestic species and its
breeding grounds are around individual households. Health officials
pointed out that source-reduction activities should thus be focused
around households. The civic authorities can do general fogging and
spraying activities, aimed at controlling adult mosquitoes, but the
key to mosquito control is the source- reduction activities that
individuals should launch on a weekly basis in and around their
houses.Dengue fever is endemic in the district and for the past few
years, nearly 70 per cent of all dengue cases in the State are being
reported from Thiruvananthapuram, especially from Corporation areas.
Dengue cases are reported throughout the year in the district as most
urban houses have overhead water tanks, most of which might not be
lidded tightly and provide breeding grounds for the species.

The Hindu, 24th December 2008