Indoor surveillance needed to avoid dengue fever

Islamabad : After the setting in winter, the mosquitoes including dengue fever vector would try to find relatively warmer places to rest and bite inside homes and offices and it is high time for individuals to take measures for indoor surveillance to prevent dengue fever.

The dengue fever outbreak reported at Union Council Bhara Kahu has lost its intensity mainly because of fall in mercury and the number of dengue fever cases reaching hospitals has reduced to a significant level, said Additional District Health Officer at ICT Health Department Dr. Muhammad Najeeb Durrani while talking to ‘The News’ on Saturday.

He said not more than 15 confirmed cases of dengue fever from both the rural and urban areas of the federal capital have been registered with Islamabad hospitals in last one week.

He explained that due to fall in mercury that has dropped down to 20 degrees Celsius and below from evening till morning in this region of the country, the mosquitoes activity got limited. “It is hardly possible for ‘aedes aegypti’, the mosquito that causes dengue fever mount and feed on humans below 20 degrees Celsius, as his limbs and joints become weaker.”

The mosquitoes become almost inactive outside homes at the existing temperature particularly from dusk till dawn as the weakness in their joints make them unable to get a firm grip and mount on the body of a person for sucking blood, he said.

Dr. Durrani said it is time for indoor surveillance as the mosquitoes including ‘aedes aegypti’ would be trying to reach comparatively warmer places that are available inside offices and homes, particularly in bedrooms and kitchens where they can stay in corners behind the curtains or furniture to rest and bite.

He added it is also high time for insecticidal residual spray inside homes and offices and to make efforts religiously with full force in identifying and eliminating active breeding sites of mosquitoes and concentrating on solid waste disposal so that the adult female mosquitoes may be killed and would not be able to lay eggs to hatch in the next summer season.

Vector control, solid waste disposal and public awareness are the three important steps for dengue prevention, control and mitigation and these must be given due attention by all stakeholders at the time, he said.

Health experts also believe that the fall in temperature convinces mosquitoes to stay in warmer places and at night, mosquitoes stay inside vehicles, Metro Bus Stops and buses parked at night in the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi. They say that there is a need to fumigate Metro bus stations and buses on regular basis to avoid mosquitoes’ breeding.