North Delhi Mayor Preety Agarwal chaired a meeting with municipal health officers and deputy health officers of all the six zones of North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NMC) on Wednesday to review the situation of dengue and measures taken to check. However, it appeared to be a futile exercise as the number of vector borne diseases in the national Capital has reached a staggering total despite Corporation's attempt to use insecticides instead of adopting scientifically proved eco friendly measures such as introducing larvae-eating fish Gambusia in water-bodies, distributing ‘Agave Americana' plant that has a "larvicidal efficacy" and promoting dengue free cooler.
According to sources, it was further decided to go with insecticides while eco-friendly measures that are very cheap were ruled out by medical health officers. The intriguing fact is that even Mayor and Additional Commissioner themselves advocated the need to adopt such practices and pitched for its promotions among masses.
Experts also raised their concern for not having any measures to check whether the costly insecticides are even being used by "District Health Officers" and termed it merely a photo opportunity.
It may be recalled that taking to The Pioneer on July 10, NMC Mayor Preeti had Aggarwal recognised the importance of dengue free cooler that cost only Rs 25 to users and very effective in preventing mosquitoes from laying larva inside the coolers. She said, "The move to promote dengue free cooler as preventive measures. Prevention is better than cure. We will use every medium to generate awareness among people. The Corporation will use radio, social media along with banners and pamphlets. Corporation officials have been directed to explain the benefits of putting a net over water coolers".
While Additional Commissioner (Health) in North Corporation Pankaj Kumar Singh on July 10 told The Pioneer the introduction of the concept of the dengue free cooler is an environment-friendly initiative and will be taken up at war footing to generate awareness among the people. "The concept was developed by experts of health department after years of research and experience practical approach to deal with mosquitoes menace. The maximum breeding of Aedes mosquito, which causes dengue and chikungunya takes place in desert coolers so we have already instructed manufacturers to sell dengue-free cooler. This initiative would help in containing the number of cases of these diseases," he said.
Also on July 12, Additional Commissioner (Health) Pankaj Kumar Singh told The Pioneer that the Agave Americana' plant is an eco-friendly and effective to check mosquito menace. Describing it further, he also said that one needs to mix 10 ml of plant juice in 400 ml water; you will observe the larva of Aedes mosquito that is at first stage will be killed within one hour and larva develops to others stages will also be killed in less than five hours. These plants are easily available in Delhi," he said.
The National Institute of Malaria Research (NIMR) had already found two new species of Anopheles Stephensi (urban vector) and Anopheles Culicifacies (rural vector) circulating this year. The parasitic infection was lying dormant after mutating, but it has made a comeback after a gap of five years at a time when Delhi is already reeling under the scourge of dengue and chikungunya.
Experts have raised the red flag after the resurgence of this deadly parasite and have advised Government agencies to take adequate measures to arrest the spread of this deadly infectious disease that can play havoc with people's health.
NIMR Director Neena Valecha had told The Pioneer on June 21, "The cases being reported now are because of better detection and surveillance. In Delhi, the nearby villages are adding to malaria cases because of poor hygiene and drainage system. About 40 per cent patients have a travel history which suggests that people contracted the disease outside Delhi and once they came back, the infection spread."
Municipal Health Officer Dr A K Bansal informed that till 22nd July 2017 Domestic Breeding Checkers visited 8869919 houses and breeding was found in the 21,608 houses. "legal notices were issued to 18,951 and prosecution action was initiated against 4,175 persons," he said. But a senior official in the Corporation questioned the veracity of the fact as there are no measures to check whether DBC visiting houses or giving the data compiled in earlier visits.
Dr Bansal also informed that there are 38 water-spots where fish are surviving to check the breeding of Aedes Agypti mosquito responsible for the spread of virus of dengue. Despite the fact, the Corporation has no collaborative data to show that the fish are being dropped in water bodies to check the menace.