Dengue hot spots identified by the Chennai Corporation
Posted on: 07/Sep/2019 9:43:43 AM
The recent rains in Chennai have not only made the residents happy but also made them to worry a lot now. The reason for the Chennai resident�s happiness now is due to the fact that the rains have reduced the water crisis to some extent and the cause for worry now is due to the increase in the mosquito population.
The shocking piece of information is places like Vysarpadi, Tondiarpet, Madhavaram and Velachery are now identified as dengue hotspots. It must be taken into account that in these places the tests on aedes mosquitoes and larvae picked tested positive for the vital infection. To prevent human infection and spread awareness, prioritizing vector control steps would be taken in the above said places by the GCC and this was confirmed by the officials.
Information collected is between 19th July and 24th July the aedes mosquitoes from places like Thiruvottriyur, Manali, Madhavarm, Tondiarpet, Thiru-Vi-Ka Nagar, Adyar, Perungudi, Sholinganallur were picked by the corporation and sent to directorate of public health for testing purpose
According to deputy commissioner (health), Mr. Madhusudhan Reddy, it is clear that the potential hot spots keep changing. He mentioned about fogging that was done to bring down the population of adult mosquitoes. He praised the efforts of the field staffs for identifying the breeding sources of aedes mosquitoes in the community, open spaces and inside houses, industries, offices and government institutions.
It was pointed out by chief vector control officer, Mr. Selvaraj that aedes mosquitoes are found across Chennai among other species of mosquitoes like culex and anopheles. He spoke about how the density of the aedes mosquitoes till the first week of September was low as per the daily agency survey. He threw light on how the field officers went to many houses, construction sites etc for the breeding sources.
Mr. Selvaraj finally mentioned about how each officer recorded the percentage of houses infested with larvae and or pupae (house index), percentage of water holding containers infested with larvae or pupae (container index) and number of positive containers per 100 house inspected (breteau index). It is important to note that a house is regarded low risk if the point is less than one.
According to Chennai city health officer, Dr. Senthilnathan, mosquitoes from the above mentioned sites were sent to lab for testing. He hinted that not all the aedes mosquitoes carry virus. He finally explained about how a female infected mosquito injects the virus into the humans and how if the viral load is high or if the immunity in humans is low then the person could become seriously ill.
