Aedes mosquitoes appeared 3 months sooner: Khokon
The recent outbreak of chikungunya occurred as prevalence of Aedes mosquitoes appeared three months earlier than usual, Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) Mayor Sayeed Khokon said yesterday.
The city corporation could not predict the outbreak as the mosquitoes appeared in April this year instead of July-August, he said.
Besides, they could not carry out mosquito control drives during the Ramadan and Eid holidays when they were engaged in conducting mobile courts.
Khokon made the remarks while speaking as chief guest at a discussion jointly organised by Labaid and State University of Bangladesh (SUB) at Scholars Inn in the capital's Kalabagan area. “We will of course take the responsibility [for the chikungunya outbreak]. We didn't know and we were not prepared,” he also said.
Replying to a query, the mayor said as par the World Health Organization guideline, approximately 99.4 percent of the mosquito larvicide used by the city corporation contains kerosene and the rest is insecticide. This might cause people to think that it is adulterated.
Maj Gen (retd) Dr M Shahjahan, acting vice-chancellor of SUB; Dr AM Shamim, director general of Labaid Specialized Hospital; and Robayet Ferdous, a professor of Dhaka University; also spoke among others.
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