The arrival of the monsoon and the death of a 13-year-old girl from dengue should ring the alarm bells for municipal bodies that need to intensify vector-control drives, and communities should ensure the neighbourhoods are clean and devoid of mosquito breeding sites, experts told Metro on Sunday.
Awareness campaigns and door-to-door visits by vector-control teams will keep the community alert and achieve the goals, said experts.
“The vector-control work is very important in combating dengue and other vector-borne diseases. For vector-control to be effective, the community’s engagement is very important,” said Prabir Kumar Sen, a member of the technical advisory group on dengue of World Health Organisation’s south-east Asia region.
“Public awareness about the disease is also important. The municipal bodies should conduct regular awareness drives to make the community alert and educated about the disease and the preventive measures,” said Sen, also a former director of National Center for Vector Borne Diseases Control.
A Class VII student in Dum Dum Cantonment died of dengue on Saturday. Metro found pools of stagnant water and piles of solid waste in the neighbourhood on Sunday. Other parts of the city painted similar pictures.
On Thursday, Calcutta’s mayor Firhad Hakim said in the Assembly that 115 dengue cases had been reported from the city this year. The number was lower compared with the past few years, he said.
However, experts said the vigil should be tight so that the dengue cases do not rise.
Metro on Sunday found pools of water under stacked pipes on a vacant plot along Hazra Road. At Dover Terrace shells of green coconuts were lying in a pile of waste, and thermocol sheets and plastic bags were found in another heap of garbage on Dover Lane. Experts said small containers can convert into mosquito breeding sites when water accumulates inside the containers and remains undisturbed for at least seven days.
The eggs laid by Aedes aegypti mosquitoes can turn into adult mosquitoes within seven days if the water remains undisturbed. The dengue virus is transmitted to humans through the bites of infected female mosquitoes, primarily the Aedes aegypti mosquito, said the website of the World Health Organisation (WHO).
An official of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) said the civic body has 930 two-member teams that work across 144 wards. “These teams have one member solely meant for speaking to residents and telling them what measures to take to stop mosquito breeding. The other member is a vector-control worker who identifies and destroys mosquito breeding sites,” said Debashis Biswas, the ex-officio chief vector-control officer of KMC.
“We also have autorickshaws going around a neighbourhood or standing in a strategic location and delivering a message on vector-control.”
Sen said training of doctors on how to manage dengue patients, with a special emphasis on fluid management, was also essential to prevent severity and death. “Doctors should be regularly trained on what the early signs of a dengue case progressing into a severe disease are,” he said.