The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Stress on strengthening vector-control strategies

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Wednesday, Mar 19, 2008
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Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Stress on strengthening vector-control strategies

Staff Reporter

Entomologists warn of possible outbreak of diseases

Rain hits efforts of Health Department
High incidence of dengue fever in Thiruvananthapuram

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The sudden onset of rain indicates that vector-control strategies need to be intensified across the district on a war-footing to avert possible and early outbreak of dengue and chikungunya, entomologists have warned.

The breeding of the Aedes species of mosquitoes will go up immediately and increased vector indices should be expected across the district, they said.

“The eggs deposited by last season’s Aedes mosquitoes will hatch out within two hours of the rainfall and larvae will be visible now in stagnant water pools in flowerpots. New breeding by mosquitoes will also increase. Trans-ovarial transmission of dengue (through the hatching of virus-infected eggs laid by mosquitoes in the last season) is an established fact and hence an upsurge in dengue cases is a distinct possibility,” a senior entomologist said.

The unexpected onset of rain in the middle of summer has thrown a spanner in the works, as far as the Health Department and the local bodies are concerned. While the State-level action plan for prevention of chikungunya had been launched early in January, very little work has been happening in the field, health workers report.

Funds distributed

The district health administration claimed that funds have already been distributed to the ward-level sanitation committees for launching vector-control activities. But how many of these wards have actually got down to planning and implementing programmes is anybody’s guess.

Already, 53 cases of dengue have been reported in the district since January this year, a chunk of this from Vilappil and Corporation wards. Fever cases are also coming in from Perumkadavila region now.

Experts from NIV Pune and other Central institutes have issued several warnings that Thiruvananthapuram district is a sitting duck for yet another major dengue epidemic, as the disease is already endemic here and the vectors – Aedes species – thrive in the urban areas. The last dengue epidemic in 2003 in the district reported 785 cases with at least nine confirmed dengue deaths.

“Maximum number of cases are being reported from the Corporation area, which is not surprising because almost all houses have overhead water tanks, which is ideal for the large-scale household breeding of Aedes mosquitoes. Dry or wet season, dengue cases will thus continue to be reported from urban areas throughout the year. The sudden rains will only worsen this situation,” a Health official pointed out.

He also said that systematic mosquito surveillance has just not been happening despite the lip service paid to preventive action by officials.

Meanwhile, Health officials said that the strike by doctors has forced the department to cancel all its training programmes, immunisation and sterilisation camps and meetings to chart out Plan funds utilisation that had been slated for the week.

Though a team of officials has been visiting block PHCs, doctors did not turn up for the meetings today.

The All Kerala Qualified Health Inspectors’ Association has also expressed its concern that without effective supervision by medical officers, disease prevention and control activities in the periphery will be affected.

In a statement here, they pointed out that the disease prevention and control programmes which had to be undertaken by each PHC before the monsoon, with the help of Kudumbasree, anganwadi workers and the activities of the ward-level sanitation committees will be hit by the doctors’ strike.

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