Urbanisation adds to rise in Andhra Pradesh disease outbreak

Visakhapatnam: The dengue, malaria and chikungunya menace continued to rattle Andhra Pradesh as there was a massive influx of patients into various government and private hospitals in the recent weeks.

Lack of effective preventive measures on the part of the government and the pressure of urbanisation are contributing to the increased number of vector-borne disease cases with each passing year. Huge construction activity, inadequate sanitation and waste management, increasing population densities and inadequate housing are creating fertile ground for mosquito breeding, particularly in cities.

Recently, health emergency was declared in Anantapur district following two dengue-related deaths. But the situation was the same or worse in all districts of the state. The government’s fogging operations, anti-larval spraying and other measures were predominantly limited to outside the households and targeted the adult mosquitoes. But the larvae are sequestered in resting places inside houses where the insecticides do not reach.

The ‘Dengue, Urbanisation and Globalisation: The Unholy Trinity of the 21st Century’ study highlighted how urbanisation has been providing thriving larval habitats for the mosquito vectors – right from artificial containers, tyres and changing lifestyle to crowded human population and unplanned urbanisation.

Aedes aegypti – which can spread dengue, chikungunya, yellow fever and other diseases – is a highly domesticated urban mosquito that prefers to live in the human habitat, feed on humans and lay eggs in artificial containers made by humans. Lack of adequate water supply in urban areas has also been making it necessary to store water in large containers, contributing to increased mosquito densities. Climate change and rising temperatures are also said to be promoting mosquito breeding.

As per the official statistics, about 13,765 malaria, 895 dengue and 66 chikungunya cases were reported in the last nine months in Andhra Pradesh. There could be easily thousands more cases and hundreds of deaths as many cases go unregistered in private hospitals.

Despite hundreds of suspected deaths, the health officials are denying reports of deaths either from dengue or malaria.