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| Sunday, 9 November 2003 |
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Guppies to fight dengue by S.M. Jiffrey Abdeen - Kandy south group correspondent The Anti-Dengue Unit of the Directorate of Health Services at Talwatte in Kandy has detected ten cases of dengue in the Kandy Four Gravets and Gangawata Korale Division. Of these seven cases are from Ampitiya and three from the Gurudeniya area. In order to combat the spread of dengue, the unit was galvanised into action to educate the people of the areas to prevent the breeding of the dengue spreading agent. Officers from the unit have been visiting homes in the Ampitiya and Gurudeniya areas issuing leaflets and also inspecting the environment this week and advising them of the preventive measures to be taken. One of the main places of the breeding of dengue causing mosquitos are the water tanks in houses used for storing water for domestic use. These tanks they have shown evidence of larvae of the mosquitos. Since these will have to be used by the residents for storing of water, they have been advised to keep the tanks covered so that the mosquitos could not lay their eggs in the tanks. Anti-dengue campaigners also distributed a variety of fish known as the 'Guppy' and introduced them into the water tanks. According to them, the guppy has been very effective in the control of the larvae of mosquitoes. When introduced into the water tanks, guppies do not need food as they very effectively destroy the larvae by devouring them. This has been proved as an effective way of destroying the mosquito larvae. It has also been reported that there has been one death due to dengue fever in the Illukmodera area in Gurudeniya, where a five-year old child succumbed to the fever recently. The Anti-Dengue campaigners have also advised the residents not to collect water in empty yoghurt cups, bottles, barrels, coconut shells, tyres, polythene bags, flower pots, drain pipes and vessels used in the collection of water from fridges, leaves and ponds. |
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