Battling the dengue blight

The soaring casualty toll from dengue aught to convince all concerned that extra care must be taken to completely put down the now dreaded disease. In a way, this is an undertaking that does not call for any extraordinary exertions on the part of the public and the authorities, but exceptional vigilance to ward off the ailment is called for and such alertness must be continuously maintained.

It ought to be abundantly clear that the dengue larvae thrive best in stagnant water. Accordingly, all that the authorities and the public ought to do is ensure that their surroundings are clear of sites where water could stagnate. Some such sites are gutters, drains, ponds with still water and discarded empty receptacles of numerous kinds. If every household and institution could ensure the elimination of these facilitating factors, dengue could be successfully fought.

What is of importance is that the conditions that help breed the dengue mosquito could be eliminated with relative ease by the citizenry and public institutions. Keeping ones home and institution free of these breeding conditions is all that needs to be done. In other words, wholesome surroundings that conduce to human health need to be maintained. If such vigilance and care is maintained round-the -clock dengue could be defeated with comparative ease.

Public institutions deserve mentioning in this context because some of the main causative factors for the proliferation of dengue are said to be ill-maintained state institutions. The hygienic conditions in these institutions leave much to be desired and every effort must be made to hold these bodies accountable for their negligence in this respect. Many a citizen knows for a fact that ill-maintained toilets are a common sight in some of these institutions and the criticism could be considered valid that these institutions are principal mosquito breeding sites.

Accordingly, emergency measures are called for to see an end to the dengue blight. It would not be too much to ask for Shramadana-type campaigns in state institutions and schools to end the dengue menace. This is an occasion for extraordinary measures on all fronts and an exceptional civic conscience too needs to be cultivated by our citizenry in this struggle to down dengue.

In fact, the spread of dengue and connected issues could be considered a measure of the degree to which sections of our polity are wanting in a sense of social responsibility. Despite there being dengue fatalities, there are, apparently, sections which hardly care for the well being of their fellow humans.

While every effort must be made to ensure that all sections of our citizenry inculcate and practise genuine caring for others, the state is obliged to take to task those who turn a Nelsonian Eye on the conditions that help breed the dengue mosquito. If the existing penalties are found to be not quite effective, more stringent punishments need to be instituted to ensure that the law in this regard is observed scrupulously.

Gutters, we are given to understand, are taboo in Cuba and this is a prohibition that could be made to be applicable in Sri Lanka too for the purpose of containing diseases such as dengue. Besides, the citizen should be made to see the importance of sending their empty receptacles for recycling, where this is possible, for the purpose of neutralizing possible future dengue breeding places. This certainly needs to be done in the case of plastic containers, which, some sections of the public do not care to dispose of in sensible ways.

The lack of a strong civic conscience seems to be accounting for a range of environmental ills that presage danger for the larger society. Is the totality of local society sensitive to the need, for instance, to dispose of their litter in accordance with safe practices, such as, putting it away in dust bins? This is an elementary rule that is observed more in the breach. Thus, educating the public on the fundamentals of maintaining wholesome surroundings emerges as a prime task.