Few people in this country are aware that yesterday was the World Mosquito Day. But at a time when the country --- not just Dhaka City which alone mostly grappled with dengue in the past, but other cities and towns and even villages ---is increasingly witnessing higher incidence of dengue, this day could be observed widely and meaningfully. No, the World Mosquito Day does not, like other global days on animals including the most ferocious, highlight the importance of protecting this tiny but the deadliest of all creatures. Rather, it is the opposite.
Why is mosquito the deadliest of creatures? It is because mosquito-borne diseases kill 1.0 million people and infect about 700 million people each year ---almost one in 10 people. This year 3.0 million people have already been afflicted by dengue and the disease has claimed 1,500 lives worldwide of which Bangladesh's share was 466 until Saturday. The number of patients is on course of reaching 0.1 million with a caseload of 97,870 by this time. Along with Bangladesh, Argentina and Peru are witnessing the worst outbreak. But the authorities here are yet to make the most of the day's observance in the context of the high density of mosquito population with as many as 123 species of this particular dipteran. Dhaka alone has 14 of those species with aedes aegypti wreaking havoc from June to October. This year dengue appeared well before the monsoon at a time when people were just bracing for a recovery from the impacts of Covid-19.
That the city corporations have miserably failed to contain dengue's severe outbreak is clear. What is less discussed about is the disease's export from large urban centres to small towns and villages. Already the patients in areas outside Dhaka city have outnumbered those in the capital for the first time in the disease's history. There is every chance of giving a nightmarish time for villagers if the disease spreads even faster in villages where people are less aware of it and also can hardly afford the luxury of seeking safety from mosquito bites.
The scam over import of bacillus thuringiensis israelensis (BTI) is just one of the many botched-up initiatives the city corporations have taken to fight mosquitoes, particularly aedes. That fumigation is of no use has already been proved. If an unlicensed company can earn the right to supply a larvicide to one of the city corporations by adopting deceitful means to do so, who knows what happened with the fumigating agents!
When the residents of Dhaka and indeed the people of the country are anxiously looking for a prescription good enough to get them rid of the dengue's vector aedes, it is criminal to sabotage a move right at the beginning. If there is virus in the antidote, how can one fight the disease? This has been happening in case of fighting dengue. When the focus ought to have been directed to the breeding ground of aedes for immediate spot detection and action, the city corporation authorities have adopted a few directionless perfunctory programmes.
Kolkata city corporation pursued their objectives almost religiously and therefore worked out a mechanism for successful execution of its programmes. The Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) claims it has formed 10 committees comprising 10-members each in all its wards for raising public awareness and giving leadership in mosquito eradication. The question is, how are they performing? It claims the committees are detecting the residence of a patient and spraying insecticide within 400 yards all around it. This is exactly how Kolkata succeeded in controlling aedes. But the capital of West Bengal concentrated more on eliminating the chance of breeding of the mosquitoes by destroying larvae early in the season. If spurious mosquito spray or larvicide is used, even such spot detection and application of mosquito-killing agents will ultimately prove to be a failure.
In this context Wolbachia method used in 13 countries can be tried here. Mosquitoes with Wolbachia lose power to transmit virus to people as well as decrease in numbers over time.
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