14,000 houses test positive for mosquito breeding

NEW DELHI: Over 14,000 houses were detected positive for mosquito breeding in an intensive drive conducted by the three municipal corporations.
More than half of these houses—7,986—were in south Delhi, 4,340 cases were recorded in north and 2,060 in east. According to the latest report released by the headquarters of anti-malaria operations, prosecutions will be initiated in 1,410 of these cases.“South corporation issued 9,896 legal notices for mosquito breeding, north issued over 5,000 while east issued 2,000 after the drive carried out earlier this year,” a senior corporation official said.

In 2018, the capital has witnessed 11 confirmed cases of chikungunya, 27 confirmed cases of dengue and 19 of malaria so far. However, municipal health officials argue that many of these cases are because of infection acquired from other states and the city has seen very few cases. “We must note that the mosquitoes you see around are mostly the harmless ones, Culex, and not Aedes aegypti, which transmit dengue and chikungunya. Culex breeds in dirty water unlike Aedes aegypti that breeds in fresh, stagnant water. So, it’s important not to create such conditions in houses. If a disease strikes the city, then the carelessness of residents is equally at fault,” said a senior corporation official.
Experts have predicted a rise in mosquito-borne diseases even before the monsoon arrives this year. The reason, they say, is that the temperature did not stay below 16 degrees Celsius for long this winter because of which breeding and transmission of virus were not hindered. To tackle this, south corporation has decided to start its anti-mosquito programme two months before schedule and will introduce two new insecticides to fight mosquitoes that have developed resistance.
The corporations claim that domestic breeding checkers have already made 1.2 crore visits this year and over 2.32 lakh houses have been sprayed—87,000 in north, 1.34 lakh in south and 10,800 in east.