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Dengue
and dengue haemorrhagic fever have emerged as a major public health
problem. The primary vector mosquito has spread throughout the tropics
and into susceptible human populations in urban areas. The urbanization
process, which has left many without adequate water, sewer systems or
waste management, and created new breeding grounds for the vector, has
hastened the spread of the disease. Vector control has not halted the
explosion in transmission of the disease.
Basically, statistics, whether of official or unofficial origins, can
hardly depict the inherently alarming dengue situation that faces us
today. It is the scientific surveys carried out in Dhaka rather
belatedly -- one must say after the alarm bell has actually
started
ringing and not before that -- which conjure up the real gravity of the
situation. A DCC survey last month found out that eight out of its 10
zones have an alarming concentration of Aedes mosquito. More to the
point, the normal larvae presence of 20 per container on the bruteax
index (BI) has been dangerously outstripped by 215 larvae found in a
single container. Little wonder, the number of adult Aedes in the city
has risen five to ten times the normal level. Unchecked infestation of
eggs and larvae has allowed zillions of adult mosquitoes to grow. If
anything, the receding flood waters will only give them newer hang-outs.
The Dhaka City Corporation is
vociferous now in its expression of serious concern at the dengue
situation, somewhat betraying a sense that public attention is being
diverted from its insecticide spraying failure to a hype of some kind.
It is also going all out with an awareness building campaign to seek
public cooperation in keeping neighborhoods clean which should have been
embarked upon earlier. The civil society groups themselves are at work
there anyway.
Disclaimer: All
information shown here are from different sources. The SDNP is not
responsible for any inaccuracy in them. |