Many people will regard the outbreak of Dengue fever in Jeddah as far more worrying than the possibility of war against Iraq. And with good reason. War has not happened, and may not happen. But Dengue fever is, for the first time, in the country’s commercial capital — and it is lethal if not treated in time.
While there is no cause for panic, this is not some nasty virus that has come in with Haj pilgrims, such as Haj flu or meningitis, to be forgotten about now that Haj is over. This is a disease that has arisen quite separately and will spread relentlessly unless something is done about it. Transmitted by mosquitoes, anyone can become infected. Mosquitoes do not discriminate between rich or poor, clean or dirty, young or old, foreigners or Saudis.
People living in Jeddah’s Faisaliya and Bawadi districts are apparently most at risk at present, they being the centers of infected mosquito activity. But conditions in the city are ripe for the disease to spread. It is no good imagining that once the mild weather stops, the mosquitoes will die. Jeddah is full of pools of stagnant water, the perfect breeding ground for them. Overflowing septic tanks, a rising water table coming up through holes in pavements and on waste ground, leaking sewage tankers, leaking water pipes, inadequate if not non-existent drainage, have become a fact of life in the city. And they are spreading. There seem to be more every day. They used to be no more than something to moan about, an unpleasant reminder of the city’s creaking and inadequate infrastructure. Now they are a breeding ground for death. Arba’een lagoon, near to the Al-Balad district, is rotten with sewage, and the stench there is disgusting. It is the perfect breeding place for mosquitoes.
Immediate action is needed wipe out the disease before it takes root in Jeddah. It will take time to repair all the leaks, to put effective drainage across the city. But there are things that can be done straight away. In India, the local authorities regularly spray insecticides to keep the mosquito problem at bay. Fogging, as it is called, works and if properly done neither pollutes nor endangers human or animal life — other than the targeted mosquitoes. In the case of stagnant pools, oil — not exactly a scarce commodity here — can be sprayed on to the surface of water; clogs up the mosquito pupae’s breathing pipes and they die. In the longer term, money has to be spent on upgrading the infrastructure, repairing the leaks, building new drains.
The authorities must act. It is bad enough that an extremely dangerous variant of Dengue fever has survived for five years in Alkhorma, even if it has more or less been contained by the arid conditions around it. “Containing” the disease in Jeddah is no containment at all, given the city’s two-and-a half million population. It is an invitation for the disease to spread like wildfire. Unless action is taken now it will do precisely that.
The news of dengue fever hitting Jeddah should be a wake-up call to the authorities to protect the city’s citizens and the millions of Umrah visitors who pass through it each year. It is not acceptable for people to say that this is a disease found all over the world. The point is that, until now, it was not found in Jeddah. Protecting people from hidden viruses is just as important as protecting them from foreign armies. The government rightly spend billions on military defense. It also needs to spend to protect from the enemy within: The mosquito.
