Malaria raises its head , 24 new cases surface

With 24 new cases reported last week, the total number of malaria cases has reached to 148. Out of these cases, 70 patients diagnosed belonged to neighbouring States. On the other hand, the total number of people affected by chikungunya reached 57 with 18 fresh cases reported last week. While, figure for dengue stands at 90, according to a data released by the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) on Monday.

A senior corporation official said the civic body has taken a number of measures to prevent mosquito breeding, including creating awareness by using various media, deploying more dengue breeding checkers to check breeding and desilting of drains to avoid waterlogging.

"Spraying of insecticide is also being done regularly in all the wards. This year, an insecticide called 'Alpha Cyper Methrin' which remains effective for three months from the date of spraying are being used to destroy and control larvae, the official said.

He said the focus areas are JJ and rehabilitation colonies as these areas are very suitable for breeding. "The official also said  "domestic breeding checkers" who go to inspect houses, are often denied entry by people, making the task more difficult as the corporations are unable to check the growth of vectors inside houses," he said.

Besides, North Corporation has adopted an environment-friendly method to check the menace by dropping mosquito larvae-eating fish Gambusia in water-bodies and fountains in its areas. "A young fish is capable of consuming 100 to 300 larvae in a day and even survives on weeds," a senior official of north corporation said.

The total number of the people affected by dengue was 9,271in 2017 and the numbers of malaria and chikungunya cases recorded in 2017 stood at 1,142 and 940 respectively. Of the 9,271 dengue cases, 4,726 patients were from Delhi, while 4,545 had come to the city from other states for treatment.