Mumbai faces greater threat from dengue than malaria

The Insecticide department of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) found five times more dengue mosquito breeding spots than malaria mosquito in the last four months.

The dengue cases rise more than two-fold in the same period than the last year.

Insecticide department drives a campaign against mosquito breeding spots to keep control of the disease like malaria and dengue which spread through mosquitos. From January the department has found 3,102 Aedes aegypti mosquito (dengue-spreading mosquito) breeding spots in the city. It is five times more than Anopheles stephensi mosquito (who spreads malaria) spots. The BMC found 606 breeding spots of Anopheles stephensi.

There are 2,724 spots where both the mosquito were breeding. The city has reported as many as 44 cases of dengue from January to March 2019, compared to 19 during the same period last year.

The BMC department inspected more than 4 lakh water sites to search and destroy mosquito breeding sites. It included Housing societies, industrial premises as well as slum pockets. The breeding grounds were wells, bottled water plants, air conditioner's tray, plate under the plant, fountains. The department has removed 4,51,986 such objects during the inspection. The BMC has collected 8,32,500 fine from all the defaulters and issued notices to 30 societies for repeated offences.

"The mosquitoes responsible for spreading malaria and dengue breed in the clean water. So don't allow water to get deposited in plant plates, always check flower pots, money plants, be aware of water stagnation," said Rajan Naringrekar, chief of insecticide department.