Hyderabad: Now, dengue threat looms large on city

Hyderabad: Even as the state machinery is unable to cope up and curtail the rising cases of Covid positive, like every year, the city is facing at the outbreak of vector-borne diseases. The rising cases of dengue and malaria infections have become another cause of concern for the citizens, besides the Covid pandemic.

While the city had four cases of the mosquito-borne infection in April, nine in May, and 14 in June, there is a considerable rise in July, till now, 14 dengue cases have been reported in private hospitals. Meanwhile, the number of cases in government hospitals has not been revealed by the civic body.

One of the major reasons for not revealing is that the symptoms of vector-borne diseases and Coronavirus are very similar. Shedding more light on this, Dr K Shankar, superintendent of the state-run Fever Hospital, Nallakunta, shares, "So far we have received 25 vector-borne cases but currently the main concern for us is Covid-19 as it is difficult to differentiate between the two infections."

The mosquito-borne disease has overlapping symptoms with COVID-19 hence to differentiate between the two has been tough for doctors also. "As the symptoms of both COVID-19 and dengue malaria are somewhat the same, patients having dengue fever are getting anxious whether they are Covid positive. The medical professionals are facing new challenges while treating the patients," said Dr Shankar.

However, as per the records of state health department the number of cases in dengue and malaria this year has been fewer compared to the cases last year in the same period. Authorities also blame the current pandemic for the less number of cases reported as this year the pandemic has impacted the testing for dengue, malaria and other vector-borne diseases.

According to the last year's reports, there were 97 cases of malaria and 396 dengue cases between June 1 and July 13. In 2020 during the same period, there have been 74 malaria and 59 dengue cases 59.

It may be mentioned here that the civic body had initiated innovative programmes to tackle the vector-borne diseases.

In every division, on Sunday at 10 am a 10-minute information, education, and communication (IEC) programme is being conducted with local community leaders.

In every area, especially in vulnerable and dengue-prone localities, red stickers are pasted where mosquito larva is found and green stickers where it is not.

To cover every household, a well-defined pin point programme with proper schedule has been initiated, wherein awareness drives are held, pesticide temephos is sprayed and unused water from containers are emptied.

Where dengue, malaria and chickengunya positive cases are reported, pyrethrum is sprayed in the neighbouring 30 to 40 houses.

Also oil balls are dropped in stagnant water pools, Gambusia fish are released in all baby ponds and fresh stagnated water.

Drones are being used for anti-larval operations across all zones including all the lakes and Musi river.