Dhaka, July 5 – Environmentalists are blaming the two Dhaka city corporations and the Health Department of the government for their late response to the attack of chikungunya virus, by which time it had already grown to endemic proportions.According to a recent Health Department survey, the number of Aedes mosquito-breeding centres in the capital at present is two-and-a-half times more than those in the past. Chikungunya spread extensively all over the country during the long silence of the authorities that they characterized as a form of negligence.
The Poribesh Bachao Andolon (Poba) came up with the allegation at a human chain organised by 20 like-minded environmental organisations demanding effective measures to prevent the painful disease that is transmitted to humans by infected Aedes mosquitoes, said a press release.
Speakers at the human chain said the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR), had found 513 cases of chikungunya in the blood and saliva samples of 643 people, in just the last three months – an infection rate of 80 percent. The Health Department’s own findings prove how extensively the disease has spread as 80 percent of the examined samples are infected by chikungunya.
According to a recent Health Department survey, the number of Aedes mosquito-breeding centres in the capital at present is two-and-a-half times the normal figure.
Chaired by Poba General Secretary Md Abdus Sobhan, the human chain was addressed, among others, by Poba Secretary Syed Mahbubul Alam, Old Dhaka Citizen Initiative President Nazim Uddin, BCHRD Executive Director Mahbub Huq, Modern Club President Abul Hasnat, Nagarbasi President Sheikh Ansar Ali, WBB Trust official Syeda Ananya Rahman and Youth Sun President Mahibul Hasan.
Abdus Sobhan said, “At present a huge number of people in the capital and all across the country. One or more than one member of almost every family in the capital is currently suffering from the disease.
Rest of the family members are living in panic whether they would be spared or not from the terribly painful disease.” “Although specialist doctors have tried to assure people that there is nothing to fear, it has failed to win people’s confidence as they can see the endemic proportions it has reached and contagious nature of the disease,” he added.
A person infected by chikungunya suffers from severe headache and acute fever with a very high temperature. For the first few days the temperature rises to 104 degree Fahrenheit or more, accompanied by severe muscle and joint pains all over the body. Although the disease is not deadly, it takes a long time, months in some cases, to be cured.
“Although specialist doctors have tried to assure people that there is nothing to fear, it has failed to win people’s confidence as they can see the endemic proportions it has reached and contagious nature of the disease,” he added. – UNB
