The State administration has identified ten high-risk areas for dengue with Colvale being the new addition to the list which includes areas like Panaji, Porvorim, Margao, Vasco and Chimbel among others. The most alarming part is that in comparison to the 55 cases reported between January and May 2023, this year there have been 117 cases detected signalling an over 100 per cent rise.
Health officer in charge of the national vector-borne disease programme Dr Kalpana Mahatme has drawn a correlation between increased construction activities and the rising incidents of dengue. She states that construction sites continue to follow unsafe water storage practices providing breeding grounds for the killer mosquitoes. The fear is that the figures may rise drastically towards the end of July when the monsoon declines.
Awareness and educating people are crucial in the fight against dengue. A case in point is the recent spike in areas of Canacona where 47 people were found to be infected last month. Come July, there has been a significant drop and the cases have been on the wane. The Health department’s quick response and pro-activeness in addressing the issue helped big time that Canacona or Gaondongrim does not feature in the list of 10 high-risk areas.
The initiatives the DHS took are visible with health officers being directed to undertake anti-larval measures, source reduction and fogging. The question is why has Goa witnessed such a spike? Is the spurt in construction activity the sole reason? Have the awareness drives undertaken by the health department failed? Or have authorities failed to tackle the root of the problem?
The Directorate of Health Services may be fighting with its back to the wall, but it lacks the bandwidth to reach out to remote villages and create awareness or monitor situations consistently. Hence engagement of panchayats and local bodies becomes crucial. In this regard, the move by the Block Development Officer of Bardez to direct secretaries of five panchayats in the Calangute constituency mandating weekly drives is welcome, but again, it can't be a one-off exercise.
The need of the hour is integrated vector management, involvement of the community through advocacy, social mobilisation and collaboration within the health sector and with other sectors, and implementation of legislation to prevent mosquito breeding. In the absence of any effective mosquito control regime, fogging becomes the immediate troubleshooting tool even though fogging is unlikely to have an insignificant impact on the adult vector mosquito population.
The Health Services must step up the pedal and call for maximum participation of local self-bodies, social organisations, schools, urban development departments, panchayats, civil society, scouts, etc. It has to set up fully integrated mosquito control mechanisms. There has to be dissemination of information to the areas infected and communities need to be engaged to target source reduction and remove larval habitats that are most productive.
Most of the transmission happens at residences or construction sites hence the issue needs to be looked at from a wider perspective instead of overtly relying on the health services. Citizens must understand that the fight against vector-borne diseases like dengue and malaria is not of the health department alone, but a collective and resolute effort that begins from each one's home. Goa is failing because the participation of the society as a whole is lacking.
