Dengue fangs sink deeper into Hyderabad

HYDERABAD: The health department’s measures to deal with a possible dengue epidemic notwithstanding, a majority of dengue cases being reported are from core urban areas in Hyderabad.
As part of its precautionary plan, health authorities carried out around 800 survey camps, 140 campaigns, 36 school rallies and 123 advocacy meetings over the last three months in a bid to spread awareness on keeping dengue-spreading aedes aegypti mosquito at bay.

As per official records, over 150 cases were recoded in August alone, the worst, so far, this year. Health authorities, however, claim that the virulence of the virus has come down.
June and July were observed as anti-malaria and anti-dengue months as part of the government’s monsoon preparedness plan. As per documents from the state health department, “extensive behaviour change (BCC) communication campaign for prevention of malaria and other vector borne diseases” was carried out.

The action plan includes door-to-door visits for active surveillance, awareness drives on personal protection methods and source reduction.
According to the plan, if all planned activities, including surveillance and preventive measures are carried out in a timely manner the an epidemic can be averted.
“Dengue is an urban disease and is increasing in all parts of the country. Despite measures, we can see an increase in the number of cases across the city. In this condition, fogging and anti-larval measures can only be useful to a limited extent and preventive measures on an individual basis is what can help. The disease causing mosquito can breed even in clean water if it stagnates for over 24 hours, which means it can breed inside washed utensils, in the kitchen sink or flower pots,” said an official from the state health department. “Therefore individual awareness has to be focused on a lot more,” pointed out.