Health experts have blamed lack of awareness at the family level for the current surge in chikungunya disease, saying that the city dwellers are not aware enough to destroy breeding sources of aedes mosquitoes.
“People in Dhaka city should be more cautious to keep their houses clean and destroy all potential mosquito breeding sources to prevent chikungunya disease,” Prof Dr Meerjady Sabrina Flora, Director of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR), told on Sunday.
“We are observing that the city dwellers are showing negligence to destroy aedes mosquitoes… They should supplement the efforts of the government to prevent chikungunya disease,” she added.
Prof Flora said, “We think that the outbreak of the disease has apparently decreased a little bit. But we have to wait for the next few days to confirm the real scenario of the disease.”
A control room on chikungunya disease was opened at IEDCR on July 3, she said adding that anyone can contact the control room for consulting with doctors on chikungunya.
“As many as 566 people in the capital have been diagnosed with mosquito-borne chikungunya disease. On an average, about 30 to 35 people contact IEDCR per day to know about the disease,” Prof Flora said.
Senior Scientific Officer of Institute of IEDCR Dr SM Alamgir told journalist that two species of mosquito — aedes aegypti and aedes albopictus — cause chikungunya disease.
“Alongside eliminating the breeding sources of mosquito, people should be educated on this disease as there is no special treatment for this,” he added.
Dr Alamgir suggested destroying all potential mosquito breeding sources as the outbreak of chikungunya disease in the capital has increased sharply this year.
He said a massive awareness campaign is needed to destroy the breeding sources of mosquito for stopping outbreak of chikungunya disease.
