AEDES ABOUNDS

Sixteen areas in the capital, including Gulshan, Uttara, Dhanmondi, Lalmatia and Motijheel, have heavy presence of Aedes mosquitoes, responsible for transmitting diseases like zika and dengue, finds a health directorate survey.

The findings are in line with the alarming number of dengue cases, at least 6,000 in the last one year, the highest since 2002 when it was 6,132.

Also, the number of dengue cases in 2016 was almost double the previous year's figure.

At least 14 people died of dengue last year. All the dengue cases, except 37 in Chittagong, were in Dhaka.

Some 10 cases of dengue were reported in the first five days of this month and most of them in Dhaka.

However, mosquito control programmes in the capital remain scanty.

The 16 areas in the capital have seen a sharp rise in the incidents of dengue fever in 2016. At least 20 houses in every 100 were found to have Aedes mosquito larvae or pupae, revealed the survey conducted by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).

Of some 50-100 million dengue cases worldwide each year, 75 percent are in the Asia-Pacific region, which is some 30 times that of 50 years ago.

The number is sharply rising in Bangladesh. Experts say this is because of erratic rainfall and rise in the temperature due to climate change and unplanned urbanisation.

SURVEY FINDINGS

The survey was conducted on 497 households of 22 wards in the Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) and 500 households of 23 wards in Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) last year.

At least 20.5 percent of the households in the DSCC were found to have stagnant water, mostly in containers of some sort, with mosquito larvae or pupae. It was 13 percent in the DNCC, Prof Sanya Tahmina, director (communicable disease control, CDC) at the DGHS told The Daily Star.

The survey found that plastic barrels, buckets, clay pots, used or abandoned tires, their tubes and water tanks were places where Aedes larvae or pupae were found.

The areas surveyed include Uttara, Gulshan, Lalmatia, Monipuripara, Mirpur-10, West Rampura, Dhanmondi, Lalbagh, Mitford Hospital, Motijheel, Ramkrishna Mission Road, Shantinagar, Segunbagicha, Shankharibazar, Wari, Patlakhan Road and Moghbazar.

Aedes larvae or pupae were even found at the Gonobhaban, the Bangabhaban and Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, Prof Sanya said.

Aedes mosquitoes breed in clean and stagnant water and can hide in the shadows of trees, windows and doors, epidemiologists said.

Pulak Priya Mutsuddy, an epidemiologist at the DGHS, said dengue cases reported in pre-monsoon season (between January and April) from 2000 to 2015 were less than one percent. In 2016, for the first time, dengue cases in pre-monsoon season were over six percent of the total cases reported, Pulak said.

“This is because of early rainfall this year [last year]. Also, it rained even in October and November,” he said, explaining that dengue season is actually now expanding from monsoon to pre-monsoon and post-monsoon periods.

He said there seems to be a lack of awareness among people about mosquito breeding ground.

Prof Saif Ullah Munshi of virology at the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) said first priority in mosquito breeding prevention is to ensure that there are no containers with stagnant water in or outside households.

If mosquitoes are still there, spraying larvicide to destroy larvae and fogging to kill adult mosquitoes are imperative.

The DGHS' role here is to conduct mosquito surveillance and to ask the city corporations and Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk) to get to work.

“There needs to be a strong coordination among various agencies concerned,” Prof Saif said.

The city corporations need to have a rigorous programme to spray pesticides to destroy larvae and adult mosquitoes, he said.

The DGHS, the city corporations, and Rajuk have to work together to destroy mosquitoes and educate people.

'MOSQUITO CONTROL'

An investigation by The Daily Star's found serious lack of coordination among agencies concerned. The city corporations cite shortage of manpower and logistics in mosquito control programme.

“So far, there has been no distinct record of any successful mosquito control programme [in Dhaka],” an official said requesting not to be named.

DGHS epidemiologist Pulak said they held meetings with the city corporations, civil surgeons and divisional health directors to share the survey findings and ask them to take actions accordingly.

Interestingly, officials of Dhaka city corporations say something else.

Brig Gen SMM Saleh Bhuiyan, chief health officer (CHO) of the DNCC, said they were not aware of any recent survey on mosquitoes.

“We know the DGHS has conducted a mosquito survey, but we have not received any copy of it,” said Mir Mustafizur Rahman, health officer of the DSCC. 

“If we had a copy of the survey, we could have taken actions based on the findings,” he told The Daily Star.

Officials of city corporations, however, claimed that they regularly spray pesticides to destroy mosquito larvae and adult mosquitoes. They even intensify the mosquito control drive around homes of people who reported dengue cases, said Sheikh Salahuddin, CHO of the DSCC.

They also conduct regular campaigns including rallies, run advertisements in newspapers and on TV, distribute leaflets, posters and involve ward councillors, he claimed.

Some Dhaka dwellers gave a different version when The Daily Star correspondents made random visits late last year to Uttar Jatrabari, Mirhajirbagh, Manda, Mugda, Kamrangirchar, Goran, Nikunja, Sheorapara, and Khilkhet areas of the city.

Locals there said they had hardly ever seen anti-mosquito drives in the last few months.

“The mosquito menace had become so serious that I had to move from the ground floor to the fifth-floor. We are suffering even there,” said Abdul Sobhan of Uttar Jatrabari. He did not see any mosquito control team in his area in the last six months, he said.

Sumon Sheikh of Kamrangirchar said he had seen mosquito control drives a few days after the mayor elections in April 2015 but since then he had hardly seen any men spraying pesticides.

“The mosquito menace is making it difficult to stay at home, not only at night, but also during the day,” said Jahangir Alam of Khilkhet.

Fuad Hasan of Sheorapara, who works for a company, said he had dengue in July last year. “I used to shiver when my temperature rose. I had to be hospitalised for two days,” he said.

It not only caused him to suffer but also took 10 days from his life, he said.

Salahuddin, CHO of the DSCC, said alleys between houses in some residential areas were so narrow that the city corporation people could not spray pesticides there. Also, they cannot enter homes as per law.

House owners, therefore, should destroy mosquito breeding places on their own, he said.

Saleh Bhuiyan, CHO of the DNCC, said drains and stagnant sewerage channels covered by slabs and blocked by shops and shanties, and water bodies used for fish farming obstruct fogging.

They said city corporation supervisors do not have any transport facilities to monitor the spraying, a major problem of the mosquito control programme.

Saleh Bhuiyan said the DNCC has insufficient manpower -- about 300 spray men and 20 supervisors for 36 wards.

Contacted, DNCC Mayor Annisul Huq said he was surprised to learn that so many dengue cases were reported in Dhaka.

“I have not received any such complaint of high presence of mosquitoes in my city corporation area,” he told this correspondent over phone. 

DSCC Mayor Sayeed Khokon could not be reached over the phone despite repeated attempts.

ZIKA THREAT

The worrying thing is zika has spread to many Asian countries from South America, including Malaysia and Singapore where nearly eight lakh Bangladeshis work.

At least 19 Bangladeshis were infected with zika in Singapore in late August and September last year.

The World Health Organisation said zika will keep spreading in Asia as Aedes mosquitoes are widely found in the region that sees large number of travellers.

Dengue can be at times fatal but zika poses a great risk for pregnant women as the virus can cause severe birth defects, including microcephaly marked by small head and underdeveloped brain.

The zika outbreak in 2015 in Brazil caused microcelphaly in more than 1,800 children, and has since spread across America, the Caribbean and Asia recently.

“If mosquitoes transmitting dengue cannot be controlled, the risks of zika go up in Bangladesh,” said Prof Sanya.