Time to remove garbage heaps to avoid infections’ outbreaks

Rawalpindi : Heaps of garbage, rubbish dumps, and unnecessary water accumulations can be witnessed in a number of localities in the district and its outskirts may pose greater health threats to the public by increasing the chances of breeding of vectors causing the spread of a number of communicable diseases including dengue fever and malaria.

It is important that the temperature in this region of the country has already started going up and it would be highly suitable for the breeding of mosquito larvae including ‘aedes’ mosquitoes and flies. According to health experts, garbage and rubbish dumps can prove to be a potential causes of outbreaks of serious infectious diseases.

It is time to avoid the breeding and growth of vectors of a number of infectious diseases to avoid outbreaks in the future and it may be possible through proper waste management.

It is, however, ironic that a number of sites can be witnessed serving as garbage dumps in open in a number of streets and even on roads in congested areas of the city including Tipu Road, Jahangir Road, Rawal Road, Sadiqabad area, and main city area in Raja Bazaar. The most affected areas also include localities in Waris Khan area, Dhoke Elahi Bux, Dhoke Khabba, Arya Mohallah, Peoples Colony, Tench Bhatta and the areas adjoining Pir Wadhai.

One can see a number of garbage heaps and rubbish dumps almost all along rail tracks passing through the town that may cause the spread of a number of serious infections including typhoid, cholera, dysentery and malaria. According to health experts, the population in a number of localities is at greater risk of having infections due to poor condition of cleanliness. It is important that flies are recognized as carriers of easily communicable diseases. Flies collect pathogens on their legs and mouths when females lay eggs on decomposing organic matter such as feces, garbage, and animal corpses. Flies carry diseases on their legs and the small hairs that cover their bodies. It takes only a matter of seconds for them to transfer these pathogens to food or touched surfaces.

Studies reveal that diseases carried by house flies include typhoid, cholera, and dysentery. Other diseases carried by house flies include salmonella and anthrax while they also transmit the eggs of parasitic worms. Experts believe that the chances of outbreaks of vector-borne diseases including dengue fever can be reduced by up to 50 per cent by eliminating heaps of garbage and water accumulation in the open and by giving no room to the breeding mosquitoes and flies in residential areas. The epidemiological findings and the data regarding outbreaks in the past show that the district health departments and other stakeholders should launch effective larvae surveillance campaigns at the time to avoid outbreaks in the coming weeks however nothing significant has yet been done.