Dengue control is just farce in the country: Entomologists

Entomologists on Saturday said dengue has turned into an epidemic in Bangladesh and the authorities concerned have failed to control it. A farce is on in the name of controlling dengue in the country.

Several top entomologists of the country made these remarks at a press conference titled on “Why the dengue outbreak? What is the way out?” organised by Bangladesh Vector Management Group at the CIRDAP auditorium in Dhaka.

Entomologist and National River Protection Commission chairman Manjur Ahmed Chowdhury said, “A farce is on in the name of controlling dengue in the country. Efforts are on to control dengue by frogs, deer and ducks. Such things are seen nowhere in the world.”

“World Health Organisation said the contact between mosquito and human must be severed, or else dengue will not decrease. For this reason, everyone must use mosquito nets, use mosquito repellents, wear long-sleeved shirts and full length pants and remove stagnant water regularly in order to kill the mosquito population entirely,” he added.

Entomologists expressed doubt over the bacteria (BTI or bacillus thuringiensis israelensis) that the Dhaka North City Corporation has imported to eradicate mosquito larva that weather this is the real BTI at all.

Addressing the press conference, Tahmina Akter, medical entomologist at Jahangirnagr University, said, “Entirely non-scientific and baseless things are being said about mosquitos in drains and ditches. Nobody has done proper research on this.”

Entomologist Manjur Ahmed Chowdhury further said, “Policymakers are being misled by the non- scientific remarks of several people; policymakers are following non- scientific ways. Thus, mosquitoes are not being controlled and people are dying.”

Former secretary Syed Margub Morshed, entomologist Indrani Dhar and national professor Saifur Rahman, among others, were present at the event.