JEDDAH: A municipal official said yesterday the number of dengue fever cases has declined in June.
“The number of dengue fever cases fell considerably in the second week of June,” Dr. Nuha Dashash, assistant director for primary health care at the Jeddah municipality, told Arab News.
Dengue fever cases were on the increase in early months of this year with 691 cases reported until May despite the municipal efforts for mosquito eradication in the city and surrounding villages.
A recent report issued by the Jeddah municipality on its activities to wipe out virus-carrying insects said its officials inspected and sprayed insecticides in 32,532 residential units including 162 schools, 9,120 buildings under construction and hundreds of workshops. They also visited 180 nurseries, 628 public parks and other places where there were pools of stagnant water that bred dangerous insects, the report said.
“The programs to combat insects carrying dengue virus are undertaken vigorously,” Abdul Gaffar Azhari, director of the Insects Eradication and Health Protection Department at the municipality, said. Azhari added that the methods followed by the municipal officials were safe and effective.
“We use chemical and non-chemical methods to get rid of mosquitoes and other disease-carrying insects on the one hand and on the other undertake multi-language campaigns to persuade expatriates and visitors besides citizens to keep their environment mosquito-free. We also focus on schools in our awareness drive.”
A map of stagnant water at 1,697 locations in Jeddah was prepared using satellite imaging technology as part of the campaign against the dengue fever.
“While 286 ponds were leveled, 1,218 ponds were drained. The remaining irrigation and sewage tanks are being treated weekly with insecticides,” the official said.
His department also continued the process of discovering new breeding centers and verifying reports from various neighborhoods about new sources of insect breeding.
