Special efforts helped curb dengue cases in Aurangabad

AURANGABAD: The city this time around, unlike every year, has been witnessing fewer dengue cases even though half of the monsoon season has gone by.
So far, during the current calendar year, the municipal limit of Aurangabad has recorded 51 cases of dengue, including 48 suspected patients as compared to 471 cases (395 suspected and 76 positive) reported last year.
Dr Paras Mandlecha, health officer with the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC), on Thursday said the sharp decline in dengue cases is attributed to the planned special efforts.
"While the health department staff used to work in every zone for executing anti-dengue measures, we deployed the workforce from three zones to one single zone this year to focus on almost each and every home. The concerted efforts led to scanning of every house and its premise for possible breeding grounds of mosquitoes," he said.
The civic administration had identified 160 high-risk areas while planning the dengue prevention measures. In addition, a total of 53,562 houses and 1,22,934 water containers were checked to destroy breeding grounds for Aedes aegypti - the mosquito which is the vector of dengue, among other diseases.
The prevention measures, involving the citizens, included distribution of larvicide to kill mosquitoes in early stages along with fogging and distribution of awareness literature among the public.
When contacted, different private health practitioners also admitted drop in dengue cases in Aurangabad this year. "While kids are more vulnerable to dengue, very few paediatric cases of mosquito-related diseases were observed this year," senior paediatrician Dr Rajendra Khadke said.
Among other mosquito-related diseases, Aurangabad has witnessed nine cases of Chikungunya this year, including five cases in January and two cases each in March and May. No Chikungunya case has been officially recorded after the start of the monsoon.