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Thursday, July 28, 2005
Talk back: Reducing dengue cases
By Dr. Milagros Mahilum Greif
Senior Scientist
German Mosquito Research Institute
This is a reaction to the article entitled “Dengue kills 13; toll up by 66 percent” (Sun.Star Cebu, July 20).
It is not true that dengue cases increase when fogging activities are reduced.
Dengue cases and fatalities increase because people are not aware of or are just ignoring mosquito breeding sites (containers, tires, flower pots, etc.).
Meaning, they are not concerned with sanitation perhaps because of lack of knowledge, like they don't know that mosquitoes lay eggs in the water and are carriers of dengue viruses that cause dengue fever.
As for fogging, I am a biologist and I am not favoring it. Fogging is hazardous to the environment, as it kills organisms other than mosquitoes. Likewise, fogging only kills a small percent of the mosquitoes and drives the others to other places.
The best alternative is to kill or control the larvae. (Mosquitoes have four life cycles—eggs, larvae, pupa and adult. The first three stages occur in the water.)
That means, you have to kill the mosquitoes when they are still in the water, like in barrels, containers, tires, etc. because it would be easier to do than killing them when they are already flying.
Thus, people should empty the barrels, containers or tires where the mosquitoes lay their eggs.
Every year, I fly twice to Cebu for field researches on dengue. Although I am working in Germany, I solicit funds internationally just to help solve our dengue problem.
I was in Cebu last March and did field researches on the application of B.t.i. tablets--a new method of killing the larvae of mosquitoes. I conducted the researches in Barangays Buhisan, Guadalupe, Pardo and Labangon in Cebu City.
The tablets worked well (the results were also published in this newspaper). I donated about 10,000 of them to the city health department.
The tablets are being used all over the world except in the Philippines. I am now in the process of registering them so that it can be used officially for anti-dengue programs.
Again, the government should not concentrate on fogging but on environmental sanitation and use of B.t.i. tablets. Only through this can dengue cases be reduced without destroying our biodiversity.
(July 28, 2005 issue)
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