JEDDAH, 6 March 2003 — The Jeddah Municipality and the Directorate of Health Affairs in the Western Region are coordinating their efforts in the fight against an outbreak of dengue fever in Jeddah, which was reported exclusively in Arab News last week.
Seven cases of the potentially deadly dengue fever have recently been discovered in Jeddah. Health professionals have repeatedly stressed that the only way to control the disease, which first appeared in Jeddah in 1994 when it was an epidemic, is to eradicate the mosquitoes in the city.
A special committee has been formed to spray and disinfect areas in which the disease is found or is judged likely to appear. The committee will also educate residents on ways to fight and kill mosquitoes.
Abdul Aziz Al-Ghamdi, Director of the Health Protection Unit at the Jeddah Municipality, told Arab News yesterday that the lack of a proper sewage system in Jeddah was the major cause of the disease.
“We are coordinating with the Directorate of Health Affairs and have formed a special committee to deal with dengue fever and related problems. When a case is reported, we visit the house of the affected individual, spray the house and then the entire neighborhood,” he said.
He went on to explain that mosquitoes were a major problem in Jeddah because of the absence of a sewage system, bad drainage and ground water.
Jeddah’s fight against mosquitoes, he explained, had been going on for years. However, since nothing has been done to eliminate areas of stagnant water where mosquitoes breed, the problem has worsened.
“Jeddah is an ideal environment for mosquitoes to thrive,” Al-Ghamdi continued. “There are uncovered water tanks, leaking water and in some old downtown houses, even standing sewage water. We can do something about the outdoor water but we can do very little about water where mosquitoes breed and thrive inside houses and courtyards.”
