In an unusual phenomenon, the city has witnessed fourfold rise in dengue cases in the last five years, despite mosquito density decrease. According to the experts, more surveillance and diagnosis has led to the rise. The data of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation states that in 2014 the number of dengue cases reported in civic body's limit was 638 which rose to 3135 in 2018.
In 2014, average mosquito density was 4.05 while the density of Aedes aegypti was 2.60 which has dropped to 3.20 and 0.19 respectively.
According to the entomologist Rajesh Sharma, the civic body does the highest sampling round the year. "Not a single case is under-reported. It is true that despite the low density of the mosquito number of positive cases have increased. Due to the short monsoon, the longevity of mosquitoes have increased," said Sharma. "The climatic condition leads to the increase in the number of dengue mosquito. This is the main aspect of rising dengue cases in the city," added the expert.
The health officer of the civic body said that the team has increased surveillance and now the rapid tests are being done. "Our health workers have rapid diagnose kit which gives result in a couple of seconds. So diagnosis of viral fever, malaria or dengue has become easier," said Dr Bhavin Solanki, in-charge medical officer of health, AMC.
"We are keeping the door to door surveillance for the vector-borne cases. Our teams are taking the blood serum samples of the fever cases and hence, we detect the dengue cases more," added Dr Solanki.
According to Dr Dileep Mavlankar, director of Indian Institute of Public Health (Gandhinagar) said, "It is possible that the civic body has added the data from the private hospitals and clinics too. It depends on how the density is measured. The data is likely to be genuine too. It is strange that despite low density of the vector, the number of cases is being increased," said Dr Mavlankar. "The number of reporting units sector wise should be considered. The increase inreporting units adds up the figure," he further added.
THE DATA
- According to the data by Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, in 2014 the number of dengue cases reported in civic body’s limit was 638 which rose to 3135 in 2018.
- In 2014, average mosquito density was 4.05 while the density of Aedes aegypti was 2.60 which has dropped to 3.20 and 0.19 respectively.
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