JEDDAH: As municipal workers move through town fogging mosquitoes that spread dengue fever, some residents have refused them entry to their homes and apartments out of fear their legal status would be scrutinized.
According to Ahmad Bukhari, head of research and development at the municipality, the problem is prevalent mainly in some south Jeddah districts populated heavily by illegal residents.
Bukhari estimated that up to 40 percent of residences are refusing to answer when dengue-eradication workers knock on doors to gain entry. Residences that don't receive the treatment can contribute to the spread of mosquitoes in their neighborhoods, he added.
“If we can't convince the illegal residents that we are not interested in detaining them then we need to raise awareness about how serious the situation is if they don't cooperate,” Bukhari said.
The municipality has been distributing pamphlets and CDs in various languages explaining how residents can find and destroy places where mosquitoes could be breeding. Such places include water catchments at the bottom of refrigerators and puddles of air conditioning condensation (often on the tops of window units where water collects from the dripping of the units above) and other domestic locations where standing water can incubate mosquito larvae.
The municipality has 15 Indian volunteers who approach people on the street and at their homes to spread awareness without raising suspicions from foreign residents wary of Saudis who appear to be officials.
Abdul Ghaffar Azhari, head of the municipality's crisis management operations, said awareness is the key to success in the war against dengue fever. Spraying is only a partial solution, said Azhari, stressing that “people should continuously eliminate the breeding environments in their own homes.”
Dengue fever cases were on the increase in early months of this year with 691 cases reported through May.
A recent report issued by the municipality on its activities to wipe out disease-carrying insects said its workers inspected and sprayed insecticides in 32,532 residential units, 162 schools, 9,120 buildings under construction and hundreds of workshops. They also visited 180 plant nurseries, 628 public parks and other places where stagnant water provides an ideal environment for dengue-carrying pests to breed.
