With 10 deaths and 659 dengue-positive cases in the city this year, the disease continues to be a bigger problem for Mumbai as compared to Ebola's worldwide scare.
Dengue vs Ebola in numbers
While 13,567 cases of Ebola have been reported across the world in 2014, official reports state 20,500 dengue cases occur in a year in India alone. Moreover, in a country that has 1.2 billion people, the under-reporting must be as much as 300 times, say experts. Researchers have estimated that at least 58 lakh people in India suffer from dengue every year.
Where is aedes mosquito breeding?
Believe it or not, it is a posh man's disease. According to BMC, 80-85% breeding sites of the aedes aegypti mosquito have been found inside people's houses, with over 50% breeding found in plush or middle class housing societies — the very societies and bungalows whose owners do not give access to civic officials to screen their property for breeding sites.
How are residents responsible for this?
Dengue mosquito breeds inside houses in stagnated water, around buckets, plants, air conditioners and other such places.
BMC has asked citizens to do their bit to drive out the disease. Additional municipal commissioner (health) Sanjay Deshmukh said: "Our staff is working overtime and on holidays too to reach out to more people, but we are facing high-handedness from plush housing societies. It takes two to three days to reach out to such societies, and, without their permission, we cannot enter their houses to check breeding sites."
So how's BMC dealing with it?
In a survey of 7 lakh housing societies carried out by 900 BMC workers, the breeding sites were discovered in more than 50% non-slum areas and included high-rises, commercial establishments, bungalows etc. "We are slapping notices and collecting fine from housing societies/commercial establishments where we spot aedes mosquito breeding sites," added Deshmukh.
So far, BMC has collected Rs23 lakh in fine and dragged 344 housing societies/commercial establishments to court. "We don't have the power to arrest people, but we are coming down heavily on defaulters," he said.
Officialspeak
Executive health officer, BMC, Dr Padmaja Keskar said, "One may lock their house for safety against theft while going on a holiday, but to lock mosquitoes out of house is another challenge. Monsoon receded over a month ago, but the aedes mosquito, which can survive for over a month, is still around."
What's the other thing people are doing wrong?
Doctors say self medication is another reason why Mumbai is seeing dengue complications. "Dengue is not a fatal disease, but the chance of complication goes up if the patient is self-medicating," said Dr Jalil Parker, physician at Lilavati hospital.
What do doctors say?
They believe the symptoms exhibited by maximum dengue patients fall between type DEN-2 and DEN-4. "There are four virus types that cause dengue. The present representation of cases shows that DEN-2 and DEN-4 strains are in circulation right now," said Dr Om Shrivastav, director of the department of infectious diseases at Jaslok Hospital. "There seems to be a change in vector transmission. Compared to last year, we are seeing more dengue cases in October. Intermittent rainfall, change in temperature, environment, and humidity are a few other factors for the rise in dengue cases."
Dean of Nair hospital Dr Ramesh Bharmal said, "We are sending blood samples to Defence Research & Development Organisation in Gwalior and National Institute of Virology in Pune for genotyping and understanding which gene strain is in circulation in the city. The samples will be sent from BMC's tertiary care hospitals."
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