Dengue Prevention Week [September 25 2016]

By Carol Aloysius

To avert a possible dengue outbreak in the next three months, when the number of mosquito breeding sites are likely to surge with the monsoon rains, the Dengue Control Unit of the Health Ministry will launch an island-wide Dengue Control Week starting on Tuesday, September 27 to Monday, October 3.

Director, Dengue Control, Unit, Dr A.R. M. Thowfeek said that if the usual weather patterns prevail, the number of breeding sites for the dengue carrying Aedes Aegypti mosquito would soar, especially in crowded urban areas with unclean ...environments where the mosquito population is usually dense.

"To avoid this we will start our program ahead of the monsoons and eliminate as many breeding sites as possible," he told the Sunday Observer.

Dr. Thowfeek said mosquito control activities will be carried out on all seven days of the week, with Sunday being reserved for community participation on a shramadana basis.

On the other six days officers will visit certain sites selected as priority areas by medical officers and public health officers in those areas. He said schools and government buildings as well as places of religious worship would be the focus of these activities.

Suspected dengue cases reported to the Epidemiology Unit by September 24 is 41,173, which is nearly 10,000 more than the number of suspected dengue cases for the whole of last year. The highest number of cases this year was in July when the numbers surged from 4,730 to 10,636, following heavy floods with short bursts of sunshine, resulting in thousands of new mosquito breeding sites in affected areas.