JEDDAH: Members of a national campaign to fight dengue fever have visited around 154,000 houses in Jeddah in the last 12 weeks and discovered mosquito-breeding areas in 6,650 houses, said an official Jeddah municipality report.
“A major obstacle facing the campaign is people not allowing our teams to enter their homes to spray pesticide,” said Dr. Abdul Ghaffar Azhari, supervisor of the Crisis Management Department and director general of the Department of Insecticides and Preventive Health.
Speaking about problems facing the national campaign, Dr. Azhari said team members were being given their monthly salaries late, something that is causing problems, especially since they are employed part time and not full time.
Dr. Azhari said the mosquito breeding areas consisted of water gathered in deserted tanks and swimming pools, uninhabited homes, open water tanks and plant pots.
He said the fight against dengue fever is being carried out using safe types of pesticides and that the campaign is covering all districts of the city. “We go from house to house combing the entire area looking for real or suspected dengue fever cases. When we come across a dengue fever case, all neighboring houses within a radius of 150-300 meters are sprayed with pesticides,” he added.
Dr. Azhari said the teams also distribute brochures and pamphlets in various languages to raise awareness among people. “The campaign focuses on three aspects: enlightening residents about breeding areas, avoiding elements that help establish them and getting rid of breeding areas as soon as they are detected,” he said.
Dr. Azhari said the campaign will in the future make use of aerial photos to determine homes that are likely to have dengue fever carrying mosquitoes. He also asked all citizens and expatriates to cooperate with the campaign.
“We are hoping to reduce the number of those who get dengue fever and also to bring down the spread of the disease,” he added.
