Round the year awareness against dengue needed

Dengue has emerged as a serious health hazard for Bangladesh. Not too long ago, this mosquito-borne disease was restricted mainly to the urban centers of the country, but that is not the situation today. Again, the dengue menace was mainly a monsoon-only health hazard and that pattern too has changed for the worse. Today, dengue is a round-the-year nationwide problem and with that has come the need to raise not only awareness levels but also the need for a comprehensive rethink of how to combat its prevalence to prevent thousands of deaths each year due to dengue-induced fever. These issues came up for discussion at a programme organised by the National Institute of Preventive and Social Medicine (NIPSOM) last week.
The biggest hurdle that has been identified is the lack of awareness amongst people about containing the breeding grounds for the dreaded dengue-carrying mosquito. Until now, no vaccine that is effective against all the serotypes of dengue is available. One vaccine developed a few years back has certain limitations. Hence the priority should be to destroy the breeding grounds of aedes mosquito. It is commendable that NIPSOM has raised the issue that deserves urgent and greater attention of the policymakers, who need to prepare a community-level programme to raise awareness among the masses. Mere recognition will not bear fruit. This campaign needs comprehensive planning and its execution requires involvement of various agencies, including local level representative bodies, health officials and non-government organisations that work down to grassroots level. The good thing about Bangladesh is that it has a long history of successfully organising country-wide immunisation programmes and hence is the existence of the primary health set-up here.
The problem of course is that this requires active participation of both government bodies and communities to work hand-in-hand to not only destroy current breeding grounds but also ensure that dengue mosquitoes find no place to breed anew in urban and rural settings. Such a campaign will require a lot of resources in terms of manpower and finance. Besides, genuine efforts should be there to make people understand that dengue being a viral disease cannot be cured by medicines and it can be prevented only by destroying the breeding grounds of aedes mosquito.
The nonchalance surrounding dengue is not limited to people only, but also there is a lax attitude that extends to government agencies and office complexes. Hence, there is a question of making mandatory compliance measures to prevent larvae production. The State will have to lead by example and only then will people be encouraged to follow suit. The successful handling of this health hazard requires voluntary participation at all levels. It also requires that the State start making provisions for budgetary allocations at Thana, Upazilla and District levels for the campaign and cleaning efforts. This campaign will require more than finances, it will require people to execute the programme and that issue needs to be factored in so that the right people are recruited. What is of concern of course is that there is a general tendency to waste resources when budgets lack clear direction. This health hazard requires timely intervention, but must have checks-and-balances to prevent graft and delivery timelines and targets to stop dengue in its tracks. Since dengue will not be going away, it is time to act.