Malaria, dengue fever: Time to check breeding of mosquitoes’ larvae, say experts

Islamabad: The recent rain spells and rise in mercury level in the country may help creating possible breeding sites for larvae of mosquitoes putting population at risk of facing a possible outbreak of dengue fever in the coming weeks and causing spread of malaria at the time.

As the temperature is rising and the environment is getting favourable for breeding of mosquitoes including ‘aedes aegypti’, the vector that causes dengue fever, the chance of mosquitoes’ breeding is on the rise if proper action both by the concerned government authorities and individuals is not taken well in time.

According to health experts, the recent rains would help creating more pockets inside and outside homes for mosquitoes’ breeding along with causing creation of unnecessary water accumulation on under construction sites, on rooftops in discarded cans and like utensils that may help larval growth.

The temperature is getting suitable for hatching of mosquitoes’ eggs and larval growth and to avoid incidences of malaria and dengue fever, it is time to take preventive measures including elimination of possible breeding sites, said District Health Officer Islamabad Dr. Muhammad Najeeb Durrani while talking to ‘The News’ on Wednesday.

It is important that the population in twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi faced dengue fever outbreak last year too and it hints that the eggs of ‘aedes aegypti’ would have been in abundance in the region that would be hatched on getting moisture on favourable temperature.

When asked, Dr. Durrani said the eggs laid down by mosquitoes months back would start hatching at the time and the unchecked larval growth would result in greater density of mosquitoes. The recent rains would provide water to the eggs of mosquitoes increasing the chances of growth of larvae and to avoid it, immediate removal of water accumulation is needed, he said.

He said it is observed that majority of our population does not give proper attention to removal of possible breeding sites of mosquitoes that increase chances of growth of dengue fever and malaria vectors.

Only by elimination of possible breeding sites of mosquitoes from inside homes, the chances of a possible outbreak of dengue fever can be reduced to a significant extent, he said.

He added that the district health office has already started activities to check breeding of mosquitoes and lady health workers have also started door-to-door awareness campaign to educate public on how to avoid breeding of mosquitoes inside homes.