Stress on community engagement: Its important to sensitise and educate the community on the risks of mosquito borne diseases

SMC  recorded 559 dengue cases since January

SANKHA GHOSH, SNS, SILIGURI, 18 SEPTEMBER 2022: At a time when questions are being raised on t he awareness level of the common people, researchers have called for community engagement on dengue prevention. 

An insect biologist, Prof Dhiraj Saha, said it was important to sensitise and educate the community on the risks of mosquito borne diseases. Prof Saha stressed on intensified mosquito and virus surveil- lance. "Dengue virus, one of the most dreadful human pathogens, is a regular phenomenon in India The virus is transmitted to humans through the bite of Aedes mosquitoes, namely Aedes aemti and Aedes albopictus. More than I lakh cases of dengue occur every year in India. I believe that there should be involvement at the community level to encourage participation and mobilization for sustained vector control. At the same time, the high population density along with lack of awareness regarding the disease has lead to its efficient circulation," he said. 

The Siliguri Municipal Corporation, which has recorded 559 dengue cases since January, said the awareness level among a section of the people is still low, despite widespread campaigns, especially on overall cleanliness, accumulation of fresh stagnant water in artificial containers in households and non-cooperation with health workers who visit houses. 

Prof Saha, who teaches insect biology at the depart- neat of zoology, North Bengal University, has conducted researches on a wide range of subjects, including insecticide resistance of the dengue mosquito in north Bengal. 

One of his recent studies has revealed that the Aedes albopictus had developed resistance to conventional insecticide and that gene mutation in the Aedes had caused the Aedes to be more virulent in dengue endemic areas of Siliguri sub- division, including Matigara, Naxalbari, and Sukna in Darjeeling district. His studies were published in the peer- reviewed open access reputed scientific journals like Acta Tropica, an International journal on infectious diseases that covers public health sciences and biomedical research, Plos One, Scientific Reports- a journal Nature group, and others. According to him, there should be active neon- holing and surveillance of vector abundance, distribution, and resistance status against commonly used insecticides. 

"Mass awareness is inevitable in proper prevention of this disease. Along with this, species composition should be carried out to deter- mine effectiveness of control interventions; Prospectively monitor the prevalence of virus in the mosquito pop u- lat ion, with active screening of sentinel mosquito collections; Vector surveillance can be combined with clinical and environment surveillance,- Prof Saha said. 

Siliguri Mayor Gautam Deb, meanwhile, said public awareness and their involve- matt were very important, especially during this situation. 

"Our efforts are to make people participate at a large scale and continuously work to tackle such situations round the year," he said. According to Darjeeling district magistrate S Ponnambalam, they had involved representatives of anganwadi centres, gram panchayat, and frontline health workers like accredited social health activists. "We will also engage self help group members for awareness generation at the community level in the next few days," he said. 

According to Prof Saha, during times of Covid -19, immediate measures should be taken for proper prevention of dengue and to reduce the menace of this viral dis- ease. "More than half a billion people worldwide are at risk of mosquito-borne diseases. Due to lack of specific modifications, suitable vaccination and development of drug resistance in pathogens, the only method to minimize the risk remains prevention of the disease, mainly through control of the mosquito population. North Bengal districts have been hot spots for vector- borne diseases. As it records seasonal outbreaks of malaria, dengue and chikungunya, this area houses several different potential mosquito vector species."