Spread of Dengue during COVID-19 Pandemic

You have got all the bushes cut and drains cleaned around your residence. You also make sure that your mosquito net is neatly tucked in before you lie down for the night. 

Still you may get the Dengue. Why and how ? Some facts about Dengue and how they are different from Malaria.

While Malaria control needs extensive Public health and engineering intervention like large scale bush cutting, Sewer Drain cleaning, land filling issues,

Dengue needs only micro environment management.

*( see legend below)

Today, we have powerful insecticides that can kill mosquitoes anywhere flying in the air or resting in a corner of our house or in the larva stage. 

In fogging, vehicle mounted equipments can create a mist of low concentration of insecticide that should sanitise our macro environment from any insects. You should open the windows to allow the mist trickle into your living space. 

In the indoor space spray a man carrying a back pack of insecticide enters inside our living rooms and spray on the wall and in the corners where mosquitoes sit and take rest.

Unfortunately the pandemic limits indoor space spray only to our gates and fences.

The effect of fogging rapidly diminishes during monsoon rains and high level of humidity.  

R.K.Mahapatra

Yet there is unprecedented spurt of Dengue cases in and around Bhubaneswar. Are the Public health department ineffective ?

Apparently this may not be a fault of PH department alone.

Because, sanitising the macro environment may be good for malaria but it may not  be good enough to keep the Dengue virus away.

Here is why ?

Both Dengue and Malaria are deadly fevers. They peak during the monsoon and both are mosquito borne.

But there is a subtle difference between the two types of mosquitoes that carry each germs..

While the malaria parasite is carried by Anopheles mosquito, Dengue is transmitted by a different type of mosquito called Aedes. Though both the mosquitoes look same to us but they are as different as a goat can be from sheep.

Malaria mosquito is a thief. It breeds in dirty water and among the bushes growing around them. It slinks into our residence under the cover of darkness and bites only in night. It’s a mosquito that vanishes with the slightest movement.

On the other hand, the Aedes mosquito, the carrier of Dengue is the chivalrous knight in armour among all breeds of mosquitoes. You will be surprised to note that it breeds only in clean and stagnant puddles of water. It is a fierce day biter. It is known as the Tiger mosquito. In fact twice in a day, during the dawn and dusk, as we open our doors and windows, the sudden swarm of mosquitoes that flies past us are the carriers of Dengue. You will find that these mosquitoes pursue you fearlessly and suck your blood in the board daylight unflinchingly.

Where do Aedes mosquitoes grow ?

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Unlike the malaria mosquito, they grow and breed inside your premises. Often we leave empty discarded containers in the garden or on our rooftop. For example a broken earthenware that has come with mahaprasada, or a junk paint can or a discarded tyre etc.. In the monsoon these containers get filled up with the rain water. On the rooftop you will always find puddles of stagnant water at the mouth of drain pipes. In fact the water in the decorative flower pots or aquatic plants in our drawing room, water coolers, old buckets are good breeding points unless you are changing the water regularly.

What happened during the pandemic ?

During the pandemic, there is normally a scarcity of regular house helps. Most of the family members are busy carrying out the routine household chores. So who cares for the garden or surroundings ? These became the source of Aedes mosquito. 

What about Public health measures ?

Cutting the bushes and clearing the drains and spraying insecticides on big drains will reduce the over all mosquito menace. But it may not eradicate the dengue mosquito. It lives and breeds in our micro environment. Due to the Covid-19, we would not allow health workers enter into our living quarters. The effect of fogging is limited during rains. Thus the pandemic and monsoon has lowered the effectivity of both the method of adult insecticides.

This is the reason why there is a sudden spurt of dengue cases over and above the Covid 19 this season.

Our Micro-environment is Our Responsibility.

What should we do ?

Container management–

• Periodically all containers should be turned upside down.
• Water in flowerpots and coolers should be regularly changed.
• While public health department should take care of bigger water bodies like pools and ponds, overhead tanks, our micro environment is our responsibility.

• Use full sleeve dresses especially during dawn and dusk.
• Put net meshes in the doors and windows.
• Use mosquito repellants while taking short naps during the daytime.
• The Covid situation may not allow spraying insecticide inside every quarters.

After all,

“Zero Mosquito Bite for Me” begins with ME only.

[ NB:- We don’t have any robust literature on the concomitant effects of interference of two different viruses like the SARS COV-2 and DENV ]

https://www.wsj.com/articles/mussolini-was-a-politician-who-did-drain-the-swamp-1524850967

https://malariaworld.org/blog/last-week-malariaworld-la-bonifica-integrale-mussolinis-war-malaria

: Italy’s Eradication of Malaria was an engineering marvel :

Why did the Roman Empire fell ? There is no record of any significant invasion. Neither is there any single great invader who decimated the great and beautiful Rome. The frescos of Michael Angelo or The paintings of Vinci still stand. Roman Empire fell when the Roman Rome collapsed. 

The population of of Rome just literally dropped from a million to a couple of hundred and the people of Rome just scattered. Why?  Rome was amazing with public works, exquisite colosseums. But the people were gone, vanquished by one small parasite- Malaria.

Italy’s eradication of malaria is not a medical but an engineering marvel by Mussolini. For 2000 years the mouths of river Tiber were wet marshy and swampy. Apart from the seven hills, the land table on the coast was lower than the water table at most places. Those notorious 60,000 acres of the Pontine marshes had been a malaria dead zone from the times of Bible.

In fact malaria is a latin word which means foul air: Mal-Aria. Romans thought the that the fever of  theTiber is caused by poisonous air coming from the swamps.

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Then Mussolini drained the Pontine marshes ( Bonifica Integrale) and transformed this dead zone into “Smiling Fields” that today is one of the costliest land parcel in the world. Mussolini’s war on malaria is one of the less cited success story of public health engineering.

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