Staff Reporter :
Adult mosquitoes, not larvae, should be killed to thrash dengue, said Tauhid Uddin Ahmed, former Chief Scientific Officer of the government’s Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR).
He was speaking at a seminar on “Outline a Sustainable Solution to Control Mosquito in the City” organized by the Centre for Governance Studies (CGS) at the CIRDAP auditorium in the capital on Saturday noon.
Tauhid Uddin Ahmed said, mosquito larvae would bite people and spread the disease after three to four weeks of its becoming adult mosquitoes. So dengue must be reduced by killing the mosquitoes that are already spreading the disease. But the manner in which adult mosquitoes die has not been emphasized by the City Corporations.
The ways both city corporations have applied to eradicate mosquito larvae was not effective, so dengue is still there. The rains have started to subside, and after one to two weeks, if the rains diminish further, dengue will also decrease. Then if the City Corporation takes credit, their efforts have reduced dengue, it will not be true, he added.
Gonoshasthaya Kendra Founder and Trustee Dr Zafrullah Chowdhury said that Government could distribute at least one core of mosquito net among the inhabitants of the city to control the dengue outbreak.
He also urged the responsible persons of the sector that its very common to loot the finance in our country. But my earnest request is to you all that do not ravage the whole budget considering the humanity.
Professor Nizamul Haque Bhuiyan , the General Secretary of University of Dhaka said that government should take such initiatives which was taken to bring the dengue outbreak under control in India.
Prof. MA Aziz, Secretary General of the Swadhinata Chikitsak Parishad said that dengue is likely to happen once and again. It is because about five patterns of dengue syndrome exist.
Dr Abdus Sabur said that dengue outbreak is also taking place in the countryside, as urbanization has reached there also. So government has to look after the districts as well.
Other speakers at the seminar said that the reason for not reducing the dengue outbreak this year was that the Aedes mosquito killing activities should have been started earlier this year as the rains had started earlier.
No action has been taken to determine the abodes of more mosquitoes. No action has even been taken to kill the mosquitoes by removing the hotspots where there are patients. After all, the special measures that should have been taken to kill adult mosquitoes during the dengue outbreak were not taken.
In the context of dengue control, it was said in the seminar that fogging, larvicide and source reduction activities should be carried out every week till the end of October to stop the spread of dengue in educational institutions.
Speakers also urged the students wearing full sleeves, apply aerosol in the morning and afternoon at home, and use mosquito nets while sleeping or resting day and night.
The seminar was chaired by CGS Chairman and Entomologist Dr. Manzoor Ahmed. The seminar was moderated by CGS Executive Director Zillur Rahman.
