Mosquito menace: High spending, low outcome

Experts have recommended that Dhaka city authorities adopt integrated vector management rather than spraying larvicide and adulticide only, as huge spending on mosquito control barely brings outcome.

On 6 January last year, the local government division formed a committee to draw up a vector management manual. The committee was scheduled to submit its recommendations within one month. However, no recommendation has been made as yet, even though one year and seven months have elapsed. The committee members have met only once so far.

As the convener, the additional secretary (urban development) for the local government division leads the committee. Most of the 16 committee members represent different wings of the government while seven are university teachers and experts.

At present, additional secretary Maran Kumar Chakraborty is appointed as the committee convener. This correspondent could not communicate with him despite several attempts. Member secretary of the committee and deputy secretary (city corporation-1) of the division, Numeri Zaman said he took charge of this post a few months ago. No committee meeting was held during his term.

The committee was formed in 2019 when the dengue situation turned worse. According to health service directorate (DGHS), around 100,000 people suffered from the vector-borne disease that year. Among the dengue patients, 179 died. However, some non-government sources said the death toll was more than 300.

The local government division sat with experts several times between mid-2019 and 2020 to find effective solutions to the mosquito menace. Experts recommended adopting integrated vector management instead of scattered anti-mosquito drives around the city corporations and municipalities.

Following the recommendation, the local government division formed the committee.

Member of the committee GM Saifur Rahman, also a professor at the National University and entomologist, told Prothom Alo, the committee members held a meeting only once last year.

“Mosquito control becomes a ‘seasonal tension’ now. We talk much about the issue when the number of patients with vector-borne disease increases. Our discussions end with the decreasing number of patients. I think the mosquito menace needs a permanent solution,” Saifur said.

In the lone meeting, most of the experts recommended that the government launch a separate centre under the local government ministry to manage the country-wide mosquito control programmes, some members of the committee recalled.

The centre would have worked as the regulatory body of countrywide vector management. The year round, the centre would research on vector management and make instructions on seasonal use of larvicides and adulticides.

The integrated vector management would have guided campaigns against mosquito breeding, checking harmful insects with other insects, using larvicides and adulticides, and engaging the community.

The country’s 12 city corporations spent about Tk 1.13 billion (Tk 113 crore) to control mosquitoes in last fiscal year. The money was spent according to their own decision and a large part was spent on buying insecticides and spraying machines.

In current fiscal, nine city corporations have allocated Tk 1.41 billion (Tk 141 crore) for mosquito management. The city corporations in Rajshahi, Mymensingh and Cumilla have yet not allocated budget for the purpose.

The two city corporations in Dhaka spent highest amount of money in mosquito control. In last fiscal, Dhaka North City Corporation spent Tk 500 million (Tk 50 crore) while the Dhaka South City Corporation spent Tk 440 million (Tk 44 crore) to relieve Dhaka dwellers of mosquito menace. For the current fiscal, the two city corporations have allocated more than Tk 1.20 billion (Tk 120 crore) for this purpose.

Apart from these huge spending, several other attempts have been undertaken to control mosquitos. However, mosquito control in Dhaka city is not getting the expected results. The number of dengue cases in the capital has started increasing since the end of June this year. As a result, questions about the city corporations' mosquito control have been raised.

According to DGHS’s health emergency operations centre and control room, at least 7,251 dengue patients have been recorded between 1 January and 19 August this year. Among the patients, 1,238 (1,145 in Dhaka-based hospitals) were undergoing treatment at hospitals on Friday. At least 31 dengue patients died in the current year.

Lieutenant Colonel Md Golam Mostafa Sarwar, deputy chief health officer at DNCC, told Prothom Alo that the authorities were emphasising engagement of community people more in mosquito control.

The everyday mosquito control activities were expedited. Special operations were being carried out around the house of the dengue infected patients.

Dengue is a Aedes-borne virus fever. Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitos spread the disease.

Experts said that 90-95 per cent of dengue spread is caused by home-bred Aedes aegypti mosquitos while the Aedes albopictus or ‘Asian tiger’ cause 5-10 per cent of dengue transmission. The mosquitos are available at every village in Bangladesh.

To control mosquitos properly, more research on to identify the efficacy of larvicides and adulticides and separate management protocols are needed.

In this situation, Bangladesh observed the World Mosquito Day on Friday. British medical expert Sir Ronald Ross in 1897 had first found that malaria spreads among people through anopheles mosquitos. To remember Ronald Ross, the global communities observe 20 August as the World Mosquito Day. This year, the theme for the day was Reaching the zero-malaria target.

Jahangirnagar University’s zoology teacher Professor Kabirul Bashar told Prothom Alo, mosquito is a country-wide menace which needs to be checked centrally. A mosquito control centre would prescribe the effective insecticides and research on mosquito management.

Persons with practical experience must be appointed at the centre, he suggested.

*The original report appeared in the print and online editions of Prothom Alo, has been rewritten in English by Sadiqur Rahman.