A RELAXED anti-mosquito drive in the peak monsoon season in August has resulted in an increase in dengue death and infection. Both death and infection rates have doubled in August compared with that in June and July. At least 20 people died of dengue, as the Directorate General of Health Services says, and 4,041 were admitted to hospital in 21 days of August while eight people died in June and 12 in July, the first two months of the monsoon season. About 798 were sent to hospital in June and 2,669 in July. The increase is believed to have been caused by a suspension of regular mosquito control activities because of the political unrest that has come about since July. Local government institutions in Dhaka and elsewhere have not continued with the mosquito control plans since mid-July, when student movement intensified. The city authorities reportedly discontinued regular anti-mosquito activities after August 5, when the Awami League government was toppled by the student-mass uprising. Even now, most local government authorities which are run by administrators have not been able to begin all the operations.
The two city corporations in Dhaka claim that they have continued their regular insecticide spray while community-based mosquito control measures were disrupted because of the political unrest. Residents in Dhaka, however, complain that they have hardly seen any anti-mosquito drives in the past few weeks and the mosquito menace has significantly increased. Mobile court drives and inspection against water stagnation, the breeding ground of mosquitoes, have been suspended for the past few weeks because of political instability. Experts, meanwhile, warn that dengue infection is likely to see a late pick this year because of heat waves in pre-monsoon and early monsoon times. In 2023, when dengue death and hospital admission reached a record high, the dengue menace continued well into October-November. What is concerning is that although dengue has been a major cause of concern for many years, the authorities have not yet been able to strike the coordination and devise an integrated vector management programme to address the menace. Corruption and inefficiency of and incoordination among the authorities, coupled with a lack of awareness among people, are believed to have frustrated the dengue management programmes. The authorities, moreover, do not follow the World Health Organisation guidelines on controlling mosquitoes. The city authorities largely confined the dengue containment measures to spraying larvicide and adulticide and, that too, irregularly, inadequately and unscientifically.
The authorities must, therefore, resume all of their anti-mosquito drives. People must also remain alert and keep their houses and neighbourhood clean. The authorities should also devise an effective dengue containment programme to fight the threat. As for now, the authorities must scale up their efforts to fight dengue. In the long term, they need to take lessons from countries that have managed to successfully contain dengue and apply them.
