JEDDAH: The Jeddah municipality and the Ministry of Health are organizing a five-day dengue fever awareness festival, which kicks off in downtown Balad on Sunday.

The event is considered one of the first summer programs orchestrated to spread disease awareness for both residents and visitors of the city.

Abdulghaffar Azhari, head of the municipality's crises management department, said the event would take place in the area between Al-Mahmal and Al-Corniche centers in the city's historic city center.

The area was chosen due to the high concentration of local and expatriate visitors there.

Azhari said the main goal of the festival is to educate locals on how to eradicate mosquitoes that act as the vector for the virus that causes the potentially fatal illness. Dengue fever most adversely affects the very young, old and infirm.

“Combating this disease requires public support, because with greater awareness on its mechanism of spreading, we can achieve a lot of success,” Azhari said.

He said the event would include various activities and the dissemination of leaflets and CDs containing awareness material in five languages ­— Arabic, English, Urdu, Bengali and Indonesian.

The CDs contains video instructions on common mosquito breeding areas inside homes and neighborhoods.

Azhari noted that more than 15 volunteering Indian nationals would be touring the area to spread awareness in their community.

The event would also include a daily quiz contest about the disease with giveaway prizes. A daily painting contest for children would also be held in the area to grow a sense of dengue awareness among children.

Azhari said the number of dengue fever cases has declined in June due to continuous awareness and regular spraying of insecticides in different parts of Jeddah.

Dengue fever cases were on the increase in early months of this year with 691 cases reported from January to May despite the municipal efforts for mosquito eradication in the city and surrounding villages.