'Avoid perfumes & scented soaps to check dengue spread'

Scented perfumes and deodorants put the user at higher risk of getting dengue fever as the pleasant odour of such substances attract mosquitoes carrying dengue pathogens

MP  |   13 Oct 2022   |   Kolkata: Amid rising cases of dengue in the state, an expert from Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) on Wednesday claimed that scented perfumes and deodorants put the user at higher risk of getting dengue fever as the pleasant odour of such substances attract mosquitoes carrying dengue pathogens. 

KMC's Chief Vector Control Officer, Debasish Biswas, posted a precautionary warning message citing the do's and don'ts to prevent the spread of dengue on his social media account. He stated that dengue was a social problem and urged all sectors of the society to fight together to check the transmission of the disease. 

In a word of caution to the citizens, Biswas pointed out that the sweat-soaked socks emit the smell of lactic acid, which attracts female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes (primary transmitter of dengue). This is why these female mosquitoes use shoes as one of their safe resting places at night. 

He urged the common people to take out socks from their shoes everyday when they get back home and keep those in a safe place. According to Biswas, scented soaps should not be used during bathing because female Aedes mosquitoes are attracted by the smell of a scented soap. Bath should be taken twice during the hot, rainy and humid weather. Biswas has further urged to stop the use of plastics. 

"Remember, one very important reason for the spread of dengue is the huge accumulation of discarded plastic containers in our nearby vacant lands. Plastic cups, plastic bottles and other such plastic-made items are all non biodegradable; they turn into breeding grounds of dengue-mosquito soon after rainwater accumulates in them," he wrote on his Facebook page. 

He has also asked people to use mosquito repellents (especially liquid vaporiser) from 5 am to 10 pm everyday during the season of high dengue transmission (August to November) to prevent themselves from the bites of Aedes aegypti. 

He also urged them to spray bedrooms with locally available aerosols to avoid the bites of dengue-mosquitoes. He has also urged not to dump old tyres, plastics, thermocol plates, solid waste and other such discarded items in any open place. 

http://www.millenniumpost.in/kolkata/avoid-perfumes-scented-soaps-to-check-dengue-spread-495744