WORLD MOSQUITO DAY- SMALL BITE BIG THREATS

World mosquito day is celebrated annually on August 20. It is a commemoration of a British doctor, Sir Ronald Ross’s discovery in 1897 that ‘female mosquitoes transmit malaria between humans’.

Mosquitoes are one of the deadliest animals in the world. Their ability to carry and spread diseases to humans causes millions of deaths every year. There are several different mosquitoes that can carry many different diseases.

Aedes: CHIKUNGUNYA, DENGUE FEVER, LYMPHATIC FILARIASIS, YELLOW FEVER, ZIKA

Anopheles: MALARIA

Culex: JAPANESE ENCEPHALITIS, LYMPHATIC FILARIASIS

Facts about mosquito-borne diseases:

Female Anopheles is the main vector of malaria and commonly feeds on cattle as well as humans. Anopheles (Vector of malaria) breeds in rainwater pools and puddles, borrow pits, river bed pools, irrigation channels, seepages, rice fields, wells, pond margins, sluggish streams with sandy margins. Anopheles mosquito mostly bites between dusk and dawn.

Ae. aegypti bites most frequently during the daytime, and peak biting periods are early in the morning and in the evening before dusk. Aedes aegypti mosquito breeds in any type of manmade containers or storage containers having even a small quantity of water.

 

PREVENT MOSQUITO-BORNE DISEASES BY

(i) Environment management:

It includes efforts to reduce actual or potential larval (immature stages of mosquitoes) habitats in and around houses by:

• Covering all water containers in the house to prevent fresh egg-laying by the vector.
• Emptying and drying water tanks, containers, coolers, birdbaths, pets’ water bowls, plant pots, drip trays at least once each week.
• Removing discarded items that collect rainwater from open spaces.
• Regularly checking for clogged gutters and flat roofs that may have poor drainage.

(ii) Biological control-

Introducing larvivorous fishes (Gambusia/ Guppy) in ornamental water tanks/gardens. Using bacteria, Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt H-14) as biological larvicide in stagnant water.

(iii) Chemical control-

Chemical larvicides (such as temephos) are used in permanent big water containers where water has to be conserved or stored because of the scarcity of water or irregular and unreliable water supply.

Adulticide- In areas where cases of dengue, chikungunya, and/or Zika virus infection are detected pyrethrum spray or malathion fogging or ultra-low volume (ULV) spray are recommended for the control of adult mosquitoes. Indoor residual spraying with insecticides is used to control malaria.

(iv) Personal protective/preventive measures-

• using insect repellent;
• wearing clothes (preferably light-colored) that cover as much of the body as possible;
• using physical barriers such as screening the windows and doors.
• sleeping under mosquito nets even during the daytime.

 

The National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme (NVBDCP)* It is one of the technical departments of the Directorate General of Health Services under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, and is the nodal agency responsible for the prevention and control of all vector-borne diseases in India.

For fever in this monsoon season, be careful and contact your Pediatrician now.