The Hindu : Civic body focus on mosquito control

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jan 11, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Civic body focus on mosquito control

CHENNAI, JAN. 10. Chennai recorded more than 29,000 malaria cases last year, an increase of nearly 7 per cent compared to 2002. This has brought to focus the need to address the problem at its root - attack the source of breeding of mosquitoes.

In November last, 4,275 malaria cases were reported in the city, the highest in a single month, even as the Chennai Corporation continued to carry out regular fogging and spraying of insecticides.

The civic body has now trained its guns towards controlling the breeding of malaria-causing mosquitoes. Beginning from November, it has penalised 410 houseowners for leaving their overhead tanks, wells and cisterns uncovered, under the provisions of the Tamil Nadu Public Health Act, 1939. The penalty for violation is Rs. 50.

Civic officials attributed the increase in malaria cases to its intensive drive to collect and analyse more blood samples, but cold statistics stare them at the face.The officials, however, said malaria has been showing a gradual decline over the years. In 1993, over 76,000 cases were reported.

Incidentally, dengue cases too rose to 560 last year, compared to 127 in 2002. `Aedes aegypti', the mosquito that causes dengue, has the same breeding source as `anopheles stephensi', the malaria vector.

Entomologists said it was time the civic body adopted permanent measures for malaria control. Fogging and spraying of insecticides were interim measures that have, over the years, become the Corporation's mainstay in anti-mosquito operations. Known to be neuro-toxins, prolonged use of these chemicals could have an adverse impact on people's health, they said.

The Corporation sprayed `Temephos,' a larvaecide, in wells and overhead tanks and used `Fenthion' to spray on stagnant water elsewhere. For fogging, it used `Pyrethrum,' an insecticide.

S. Vincent, senior lecturer in Zoology and Faculty Advisor, Enviro Club, Loyola College, said the civic body should concentrate on stormwater drains to prevent mosquito breeding while the summer operations should also continue. Use of bio-pesticides along with the chemicals should be introduced. Biocides from neem extracts have been successfully tested in many places and their effect, although slower than the chemicals, was consistent.

He mooted a consortium of various bodies, including the Corporation, the Malaria Research Centre and the Loyola College, to evolve a network for a collaborative approach to a permanent solution. A community-level response should form the basis of this approach, he maintained.

Mosquito-proofing of overhead tanks and wells was an important aspect in the control of malaria, said John Ravindran, assistant research scientist, Malaria Research Centre. The number of uncovered tanks and wells in the city is high and spraying these containers round the year is laborious and uneconomical, he said.

The State Government, he said, should come up with a legislation on the lines of rainwater harvesting notification to press for mandatory mosquito-proofing of all water storage facilities.

The State Government is yet to decide on a proposal, mooted about a decade ago, to increase the penalty to Rs. 1,000 and above, said Mr. Ravindran.

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