BMC’s dengue drive goes up in smoke

BMC’s dengue drive goes up in smoke

Five deaths and at least 1,000 cases of dengue since January this year has spread panic among residents in the city. Residents of Mhada colony in Malwani complain that even though two persons from their locality succumbed to the deadly disease in the last week alone, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has failed to step up measures to control the situation.

Tariq Jafri (32), a resident of Samuha (society no 136) in Malwani, succumbed to dengue shock syndrome on Wednesday, while his four-year-old daughter Tasneem died three days later.

In the past one month, nine persons from the society fall ill due to dengue. BMS student Bhavna Kamble (18), who stays two blocks away from the Jafris, was detected positive for dengue last month. She was admitted to Surana Hospital for 15 days.

"I had to miss my semester exams. I was vomiting incessantly and had high grade fever. There is a high proliferation of mosquitoes in and around the houses," said Bhavna.

Doctors say Dengue Shock Syndrome can fatally affect an individual within as less as three days of contracting it.

Even as the probability of residents contracting dengue in the Mhada colony is very high, the residents complain that the BMC has not made them aware as to how to prevent the disease. Close to 35,000 residents reside in 6,000 tenements in the Malwani Mhada colonies.

"After two deaths in the colony, BMC officials hung two to three posters. They did not even distribute temephos insecticide to kill larvae of mosquitoes. There is no awareness programme," rued Akhtar Khan, a resident.

"The residents should take care that no stagnant water collects in potted plants or buckets," said Dr Mangala Gomare, epidemiology head, BMC.