COIMBATORE: More awareness is needed among people on safe storage of water and on the dangers of fresh water stagnation if diseases caused by viruses or parasites transmitted by mosquitoes are to be prevented, Deputy Director of Health Services, Coimbatore, S. Senthilkumar said here recently.

Addressing a workshop on chikungunya prevention and mosquito control for media persons, the health official said the workshop was organised at the instance of the Directorate of Public Health in order to take the message of prevention to the people through the media.

The Coimbatore Press Club joined the Department of Public Health in holding the workshop. Club president V.S. Palaniappan pointed out that the media's role of providing information to the people on various issue would be helpful in also sensitising them to the need for adopting various mosquito control measures. Press club secretary K.K. Venkatesan and other officials of the health department were present.

Explaining why more awareness should be generated, Dr. Senthilkumar pointed out that mosquito breeding took place only in the case of artificial collection of water, such as stagnation in discarded tyres, bottles, plastic containers and coconut shells.

“Mosquitoes do not breed in ponds and lake because these have fish that eat the larvae. But, this is not the case with overhead tanks on buildings. If they are not tightly closed, the stored water serves as an ideal breeding space for mosquitoes,” he said.

Aedes aegypti mosquito transmitted through its bites the alpha virus that caused chikungunya. This mosquito was also a carrier of the flavivirus that caused dengue.

The health official said this mosquito was peri-domestic in character. “These do not have a good flight capacity. Therefore, we can find the mosquitoes close to our houses. And, this means that the water stagnation/breeding space is also inside a house or close to it,” he said.

People must drain containers of water every five days, as the larva-to-mosquito cycle period was seven days, he said. While a larger programme could always be carried out across a village, town or city, a simple method of individual families making their residential premises mosquito-free could also be adopted.

On why the anti-mosquito drive would be sustained, Dr. Senthilkumar said there was a recurrence of chikungunya in Coimbatore in 2009. As many as 3,624 suspected cases of chikungunya were reported in 2006. In the next two years, there were no cases confirmed by laboratory tests. But, there were 10 confirmed cases in 2009. Though no case had been reported so far this year, preventive measures should be taken in view of the monsoons ahead.

Presspersons called upon health officials to provide accurate information on the number of persons affected by a disease and the areas they lived in, because, only then could the media carry out its task of awareness creation.

Courtesy - Hindu