The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : BBMP teams out advising people on prevention of chikungunya

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Saturday, Jun 28, 2008
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Karnataka - Bangalore

BBMP teams out advising people on prevention of chikungunya

Staff Reporter

Mosquitoes breed indoors: posh areas not immune to it

Bangalore: In a bid to contain chikungunya, the Health Department of the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike has constituted rapid response teams (RRT) in various wards to educate people about preventive measures.

The RRTs are concentrating on educating people on pre-empting breeding of aedes aegypti mosquitoes, which cause the disease. People’s participation was most important in this effort as the mosquitoes breed indoors too.

As the aedes aegypti breeds in fresh water, elimination of all potential vectors near the domestic or peri-domestic areas was most important and the RRTs were engaged in educating people in this regard, said K.E. Manjula, BBMP medical officer associated with controlling of the disease. Apart from creating awareness, the RRTs are engaged in fogging the area, cleaning the places where water stagnates in the respective wards and collecting the blood samples of suspected patients, said Dr. Manjula.

“We are asking people to dry their water storage tanks regularly and close them without leaving any space for mosquitoes to enter.

People should avoid stagnation of water for more than two to three days in flower pots, air coolers, coconut shells, buckets, and so on inside the dwelling units,” said State Health Department Joint Director (Malaria and Filaria) P. Vasudev Rao.

Dr. Rao said avoiding mosquito bites acted as an important preventing measure and the BBMP’s Health Department was advising people to use repellents and nets while inside the house. Unlike malaria and gastroenteritis, which normally break out in areas having poor living conditions like slums because of lack of cleanliness, chikungunya could occur in areas depending on stagnation of water, the BBMP health officials said.

Many unclean water storage tanks and sumps in many so-called posh localities could become breeding points for these mosquitoes, they said.

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