Keep houses clean to check dengue during Eid: Experts

Health experts on Saturday urged the people, especially those leaving the city to celebrate the Eid-ul-Azha elsewhere, to keep clean their houses and destroy all potential stagnant water sources to prevent outbreak of dengue disease, reports BSS.

“All holidaymakers should clean their houses and destroy potential water containers before leaving the city for celebrating Eid with their dear and near ones,” director of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) professor Meerjady Sabrina Flora told BSS.

Alongside cleaning their houses, holidaymakers infected by dengue should take adequate protection against mosquito bite to check outbreak of the disease outside Dhaka, she added.

“We fear that a huge number of people are leaving Dhaka to celebrate Eid. If dengue patients do not take enough measures against mosquito biting, the disease may spread outside Dhaka,” Flora added.

“There is much fear of Aedes mosquito transmitted diseases this year. So far, we have received information about more than 900 dengue cases from different hospitals in the capital this year. But we have not received any information about chikungunya case yet,” she said.

IEDCR, along with diseases control unit of Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), the Bureau of Health Education and the health ministry are observing the situation closely and they have taken different steps, she added.

The IEDCR boss said they have asked all the hospitals across the country to send daily reports on dengue and make people aware about the causes, symptoms and ways to prevent such diseases.

“We have updated our website with the information and educative items about these. People will be able to learn about the treatment process of dengue from our website,” Flora added.

IEDCR also requested Dhaka city corporations to intensify their mosquito control operation and run awareness campaigns against mosquito to keep clean the city, especially after sacrificing the animals during the Eid-ul Azha.

Meanwhile, DGHS director general Abul Kalam Azad laid emphasis on keeping the homesteads and adjacent areas clean and dry so that dengue virus carrying mosquitoes cannot breed.

“Such mosquitoes breed in stagnant, standing fresh water often found around the homes. They breed in cans, buckets, discarded tires and other sorts of containers holding stagnant water. We have to keep our place clean of such things,” he told BSS.

Other health experts suggested destroying all potential mosquito breeding sources as the outbreak of dengue disease in the capital has increased sharply this year.

“A huge number of dengue cases have been reported in Dhaka city this season. The situation has remained unchanged since the outbreak of this mosquito-borne disease,” senior scientific officer of Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) SM Alamgir told BSS.

Alamgir said a massive awareness campaign is needed to destroy the breeding sources of mosquito for stopping outbreak of these two diseases.

“Alongside eliminating the breeding sources of mosquito, people should be educated on the diseases as there is no special treatment of these diseases,” he said.