Dengue cases ease up at last
As the number of dengue cases has started to reduce since mid-November, experts urged the city corporations to take comprehensive plans to control Aedes mosquitoes throughout the year.
Meanwhile, with the death of three dengue patients yesterday, the total number of deaths rose to 250.
Entomologist GM Saifur Rahman of National University, Bangladesh, said though it is November, dengue cases are still there and the trend will continue.
"It means the virus is still there. To destroy the dengue virus, killing adult mosquitoes is very important. If a single mosquito carrying the virus is alive, the chance of more infections persists," he said.
Saifur said the breeding clusters -- which the authorities concerned have already identified -- will have to be monitored and the drive to curb the mosquitoes should be continued for the next month.
Stressing the need for involving people in the anti-mosquito drive, Saifur said the authorities will have to involve the public so that they can be trained and participate in the source reduction activities.
"The government will have to form their body or policy to tackle the Aedes mosquito situation and will also have to manage all of their logistics from the lean period so that they can not face any difficulties during the outbreak next year."
"We have failed to find out breeding sites. We have to be active during the lean period to overcome the weaknesses of this year," he said.
"An effective insecticide needs to be introduced and registered for the people to use it, along with modern fogging machines. We had given advice to the city corporations several times in this regard but they did not pay any heed in this regard," he added.
Saifur also mentioned that surveillance is crucial and the authorities will have to form a monitoring cell to check whether these activities are being applied effectively.
"Dengue has already reached its peak this year and started declining. However, the number of patients is still massive. The authorities need to continue their activities to curb mosquitoes," said Entomologist Manzur A Chowdhury.
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