Improving hygiene only way to prevent dengue: Experts

Despite having witnessed a dip in the number of dengue cases this year, as compared to 2017, the disease continues to pose a serious problem to the state. While experts are looking into possible solutions, doctors say that improving hygiene and sanitation is the only solution to stop the attack by aedes mosquitoes.

Besides this, they are also hopeful that the state’s ban on plastics — which will be implemented from January 2018 — will bring down the number of cases to large extent.

Stating that more cases are being brought to light with each passing day, the director of Department of Public Health, Dr K Kolandaisamy, said, “It indicates that there is more proactive diagnosis in the state. Unlike other diseases, however, in the case of dengue, we can follow only three approaches to prevent it. The foremost is sanitation and hygiene, followed by immunisation and treatment with antibiotics or antiviral medicines immediately.”

Immunisation could have proven to be an apt measure to prevent the disease, because of which an immunisation campaign was also held until other experts raised the possibility of it increasing the risk. This resulted in the campaign’s abrupt halt. “Dengue is quite prevalent across many countries which puts focus on the need to improve sanitation across such nations. We are hoping that the plastics ban will have a great impact in reducing the number of dengue cases in the state,” said Dr Kolandaisamy.

While the state had faced an epidemic in 2017 with over 23,000 concerned cases having been reported, this year, the numbers droppeddrastically. “This year, there have been 3,000 casesso far. This is largely because of the pro-active measures that are being taken by the state government. There is no shortcut in checking dengue. Ensuring proper sanitation is the only way out,” he said.

From control measures to research, the state has been taking steps all year through to prevent the disease from spreading. “Dengue is prevalent throughout the year as the mosquitoes tend to breed indoors. But, it is noticed only during the monsoons as by that time, it starts breeding everywhere,” said a health official.“All the year round, we work on checking the disease and now we are now intensifying our efforts. The Health Department has been successful in eliminating filaria although mosquitoes are still found in drains. It has been successful in eliminating malaria as well. In the case of dengue, however, we cannot plan a strategy because there is no antiviral drug will act against dengue,” the official added.

While the only strategy in dengue is diagnosing and treating the disease after the fever sets in, another step that must be followed is elimination. “We are not only monitoring houses, but we are also monitoring the presence of virus in the mosquitoes. That is how we have been able to restrict the number of cases this year. We have over 150 entomologists working with us. They are distributed in different areas across the state and are regularly undertaking surveys through mosquito and larvae collection. They study the presence of the virus in the mosquitoes,” said the health official.

Here Dr Kolandaisamy added, “Mosquitoes with the virus are different from mosquitoes without the virus. The presence of the virus indicates the presence of a lot of containers and the like in the area where they are breeding. By identifying that, we are able to prevent the breeding.”

Meanwhile, the Health Department has been conducting a weekly awareness programme to educate the public about the importance of maintain sanitation and hygiene. “We have been taking action against those who fail to comply including institutions. Awareness has been far better this year as compared to the previous years which is evident through the steps that we have seen people take against the vector-borne disease,” said Dr Kolandaisamy.

While steps are being taken in this regard, there have been complaints of district authorities failing to do their job in checking hygiene and cleanliness in their districts. “We went out of the way to visit the districts and educate the officials on how to check water quality and hygiene. We hope that they accept and follow our suggestions,” the doctor added.