With rise in cases of dengue, call for campaign to involve people in source reduction activity gains strength

With a rise in the number of cases of dengue and the death of a 20-year-old girl, Asha of Peruvai in Vitla, on Tuesday because of suspected dengue infection, health activists have called upon the Dakshina Kannada district administration and the Mangaluru City Corporation to restart the campaign to make people clear fresh water deposits in their homes, where mosquitoes carrying dengue breed

With a rise in the number of cases of dengue and the death of a 20-year-old girl, Asha of Peruvai in Vitla, on Tuesday because of suspected dengue infection, health activists have called upon the Dakshina Kannada district administration and the Mangaluru City Corporation to restart the campaign to make people clear fresh water deposits in their homes, where mosquitoes carrying dengue breed.

The death of four persons, including two children aged 10 and 12, in the district in 2019 led the then Deputy Commissioner Sasikanth Sentil to carry out a campaign, making people take time off in a week for clearing fresh water deposits within their house and also in their surrounding where Aedes mosquito, the vector that carries dengue virus, breeds.

Fines were imposed on construction sites where the breeding of Aedes mosquito were noticed.

Physician and public health activist Shrinivas Kakkilaya said the same campaign should be held again as cases of dengue are getting reported in Mangaluru, Puttur, Belthangady, and other parts of the district.

“It is the responsibility of people to clear fresh water deposits in their surroundings,” he said.

District Disease Surveillance Officer Naveenchandra Kulal said so far the district has reported 188 cases of dengue and nearly 50% of the 188 were from Mangaluru, which gets a sizeable number of floating population.

“People coming from Bengaluru (which has reported 4,000 cases of dengue) and a few North Indian States come to the city with infection and then it spreads from them to others following the bite of the Aedes mosquito,” he said.