BANGALORE: Six thousand fish were released into the Madiwala Lake on Tuesday to control the mosquito causing chikungunya.

Guppy and Gambusia were released into Madiwala Lake by the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) to eat the mosquito larvae and help prevent mosquito-borne diseases.

Second initiative

This is the second time that the BMP has taken up such an activity. A few years earlier, they released fish into the Ulsoor Lake and found that it had helped to bring down vector-borne diseases, said Manu Baligar, BMP Deputy Commissioner of Health.

Mr. Baligar said that the release of fish into the tanks was only one of the measures that the BMP had undertaken to control mosquitoes.

Fogging operation

He added that wells, tanks and small ponds were being cleaned up. Also, fogging and power spray were being undertaken in many wards.

Chikungunya is a viral fever caused by an alphavirus that is spread by mosquito bites from the Aedes aegypti mosquito. Its symptoms include fever, redness of eyes and joint pain.

As many as 2,86,201 people in 26 districts of the State were affected by the disease as on June 26, 2006.

Till April this year, 1.2 lakh cases were reported by the State Health department.

In May 57,223 cases were reported and in June 11,381 cases were reported.

There have been 2305 suspected cases from Bangalore (Rural) and 219 cases from Bangalore (Urban) so far.

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