Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Community programme in health awareness to be launched soon

Staff Reporter

Over 500 cases of dengue have been reported in the district in 2005

Thiruvananthapuram: The district health administration is all set to launch an inter-sectoral programme to encourage community participation in generating health awareness and organising epidemic prevention activities in the coastal areas in the district.

Health officials point out that community awareness and response alone can lead to sustainable epidemic prevention measures in coastal areas such as Puthukurichi, where dengue fever has been recurring fairly regularly.

Even though dengue fever cases are being reported sporadically from all parts of the district, coastal hamlets, with poor sanitation facilities and low levels of environmental hygiene, are especially vulnerable to the threat of vector-borne diseases such as malaria and dengue. Five new cases of dengue were reported from Marianad in Puthukurichy in December, following which the district health administration had launched public health measures to check the mosquito population in the area.

Over 500 cases of dengue have been reported in the district from January to December last year.

Health officials who visited the area had identified a number of mosquito breeding sources around households, including septic tanks a well as drums kept in bathrooms to store water.

A team of entomologists and epidemiologists of the Community Medicine Department of Medical College had also carried out studies in 100 households in the area. Samples of larvae collected from stagnant water in broken bottles, old tyres and tarpaulins used for roofing revealed high concentrations of the primary dengue vector, Aedes aegypti. A. albopictus and A. vittatus species were also found, in lesser concentrations..

Larval indices, which indicate the risk of dengue transmission in an area, were found to be quite high. House index was 47.62 per cent; container index was 29.69 per cent and Breteau index (indicates an area's vulnerability to dengue fever), 82.86 per cent. A high risk of transmission can be attributed when house index is more than 10 per cent and Breteau index is more than 50. This indicated that the coastal area held a high potential for the transmission of dengue fever.

The study recommended that source reduction through community participation was the only long-term measure for checking the vector population. Control activities such as spraying and fogging can achieve only temporary relief.

People have been asked to adopt the practice of emptying all stored water in houses at least once every week and to fill up with fresh water. This can help in destroying mosquito larvae.

The district health administration has now initiated a programme wherein school children in the Kadinamkulam panchayat are being given awareness on the importance of identifying and destroying vector breeding sites. Educating and creating awareness in children in each household could be the key to successful epidemic prevention programmes.

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