dengue cases

Tech Corridor

Bengaluru

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mosquitoes

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Bangalore

By Akhila DamodaranMahadevapura zone records 632in Jan-July period, up from 66 last year;is in troubleYears of neglect and inertia have finally borne a stinking fruit.’s tech corridor, the haloed zone which generates the bulk of $70+ billion our city contributes to the country’s GDP, is now officially the city’s dengue corridor.At 1,538 cases, the highest number of dengue cases from January to July 2019 has been recorded in East zone (last year in the same period, the number was 233); Mahadevapura zone, which hosts several IT companies and techies, comes second with 632 cases (last year’s figure was 66); South zone, home to traditional Benga­luru, has recorded 628 cases (99 last year).The figures have been released by the Public Health Information and Epidemiological Cell (PHIEC), which has noted that there has been a spike in dengue by about 3,500 cases compared to the same period last year – only 555 cases were recorded between January and July 2018 (this explains why nearly all of your friends and relatives have been complaining about dengue this year).As per the figures, the number of cases have come down in the first week of August; but health officials say there is no guarantee that the slide will hold.Although it is a common belief that the dengue carrying mosquito – Aedes Aegypti – thrives due to garbage and storm water drains (of which Bengaluru has no shortage), nothing could be farther from the truth. Dr Vijendra B K, chief health officer, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), said: “It thrives in clean water that gets collected in stored junk materials or air coolers and air conditioners. These should be cleaned once a week.”Mahadevapura zone has long been ‘neglected’ by the BBMP, complain residents. Ashwin Rao, an IT professional who lives in AECS Layout, says there is water logging everywhere. “I see pictures of fumigation work in the WhatsApp group but I have never seen it myself in my area. There are many coconut vendors who drop the opened coconut shells on the road and these become collection point of water forto breed.”Despite being an IT corridor, there are no basic facilities, says Rekha Arvind. “The roads are not done properly. There are many potholes where water gets collected.A Doddenakundi resident, Murugavel VR (his 15-year-old son recently recovered from dengue; his platelet count had dropped to 60,000), said: “There are many slums nearby and their residents usually store water in containers and leave them open.”Dr Vijendra said BBMP has taken up counter-dengue measures in a big way but there are challenges. He added that there are 800 to 1,000 volunteers at each zone from the nursing and pharmacy colleges under the Nation Vector Borne Disease Control Programme (NVBDCP) who are creating awareness about the disease and working on source reduction. The programme started on July 16. “The volunteers are doing a live demonstration by collecting water in containers and explaining to the residents how these could lead to breeding points for mosquitoes. They are also creating awareness about how the containers should be cleared and always used with a cover. A special thing about the dengue mosquito is that the eggs can remain dormant for three years,” he said, adding that they are also doing source reduction and spraying.The BBMP has also written letters to the South Western Railway,Metropolitan Transport Corporation and Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation as they store junk material (such as used tyres) which could become sources for the breeding of these mosquitoes. The civic body is also planning to have a meeting with the Bangalore Apartments’ Federation (BAF) to create awareness to keep a check on any leakages as that could lead to breeding of more mosquitoes. “There could be pipeline leakages which could lead to stagnation of clean water. This then becomes the breeding point,” he said.