Nagpur: Even as the dreaded dengue has been spreading its tentacles in the Second Capital, the Nagpur Municipal Corporation babus seem to be dozing in their air-conditioned chambers. The Ganeshpeth Bus Stand is emerging as the hotspot for breeding dengue mosquitoes. A visit to the bus stand will expose a horrible sight. Open and damaged tyres have been found accumulating rain water and thus breeding mosquitoes in swarms. Dengue is transmitted by the bite of the female aedes aegypti mosquito.
The Ganeshpeth Bus Stand is visited by hundreds of people aiming to go to various destinations. The passengers are being exposed to mosquitoes swarming the place. Piles of unused tyres at nearby workshops are hosting the rainwater and also breeding the mosquitoes in large numbers.
Lately, Nagpurians are facing the music! The buzzing music of swarms of mosquitoes that have invaded Orange City during the monsoon season. The rain and the humid condition have created a perfect, conducive breeding ground for the tiny but deadly insect. Hospitals and clinics too have been swarmed, not by mosquitoes but by patients with different fevers. Virtually no place has been left infested by the disease-breeding species turning the scenario grim.
Despite yearly outbreaks, people at large have a careless attitude towards this menace. People expect NMC, particularly health authorities, to deal with the problem. Aedes Aegypti, the vector which transmits dengue viruses to human beings, is a highly domesticated mosquito. It has certain characteristics which makes them difficult to control, leave aside elimination. Unlike anopheles, the malaria mosquito, which feeds primarily during night hours, Aedes bite during day time and thereby makes our barrier systems like mosquito net, and repellents redundant.
