Monsoon recedes, dengue attack persists

The death of a young resident doctor in civic-run KEM hospital from dengue has put the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) officials on alert. Two days after the death of 23-year-old Shruti Khobragade, the insecticide team of BMC met with dean Dr Shubhangi Parker, deputy dean Dr Milind Salve and eight engineers in the hospital to chart out an action plan to curb breeding of mosquitoes.

KEM hospital has become a makeshift scrapyard with wooden and metal debris as well biomedical waste being found near the postmortem centre. Right across, are staff quarters of workers and hostels for resident doctors.

Rajan Naringrekar, insecticide officer, BMC told dna, "The engineers have been instructed to remove scrap from the campus and to prevent stagnation of water on leaky roofs or on the campus grounds. All leaky holes should be sealed. At places where huge pits have been dug to lay electric wires, we have deployed two insecticide officers to ensure that the stagnated water does not become a breeding ground of mosquitoes. Officials are spraying larvicidal oil to disinfect and prevent such breeding."

On Monday, the insecticide officials found mosquito breeding in the most uncanny of all locations - a small waste-water trap at the end of the hostel passage which was covered with a perforated net. "One of our officials stumbled upon this. Once the net was opened, we found it to be a breeding ground of aedes mosquitoe and their larvae," said.

Earlier this year, in January, following the death of Sumedh Pazhare, 25, a resident doctor in Nair Hospital, breeding spots were discovered in flush tanks of hostel bathrooms.

"We have initiated drives in all the hospitals to trace breeding sites. Around 1,500 workers of the insecticide department are working to prevent breeding of mosquitoes," added Naringrekar.

The aedes aegypti mosquitoe which is the carrier of dengue virus is an indoor breeder. The larvae hatches after eight days of a mosquito laying eggs. The life cycle of the mosquito is of three weeks.

BMC has reported 754 cases of dengue in Mumbai since start of monsoons this year, of which seven persons have died. If data from private hospitals were to be included the number of cases could shoot up multiple times. In October itself, 174 cases of dengue were reported in BMC hospitals.

The BMC officials have vouched to make KEM hospital a 'zero garbage' zone by December 31. "We are doing the cleanliness drive separately. Moreover, we will now maintain separate data of the number of hospital staffers contracting dengue," said Dr Suhasini Nagda, director, medical education and major hospitals.