Cases of dengue fever rise in Jeddah again

JEDDAH: The Jeddah municipality has implemented five measures to curb the increasing numbers of dengue fever.

The municipality instructed its directorates and agencies to follow the measures and called for collective efforts between the directorates and agencies and the general directorate of environmental health in filing monthly reports on progress in fighting the fever.
A source quoted by a local publication said the municipality had confirmed an increasing number of cases of dengue fever in 2015 in comparison with the same period last year.
The source said the five measures include instructing building owners to cover exposed water and remove standing water which provides an environment for mosquitoes. Noncompliance with the measures will result in severe penalties.
The municipality stressed the importance of notifying slaughter house directorates to inform contractors to abide by the measures and report any obstacles to the higher authorities. Construction and contracting companies were also asked to abide by the measures and participate fully in the municipality’s efforts in addition to committing them by contracts to fight the spread of the disease and abide by the regulations of the penalties and violations list.
The municipality instructed its employees to take necessary procedures to implement the instructions and carry out intensive campaigns to capture any violations or bad practices as soon as they occur. In addition, all preventive measures must be taken and monthly reports filed with the general directorate of environmental health.
Local media reported that the Jeddah municipality had published a report saying dengue fever cases had decreased in 2014 by 70 percent in comparison to the same period in 2013. Credit was given to the efforts of the executive committee to fight dengue and other relevant authorities represented in three government bodies which are the Ministry of Health, Health Affairs Directorate and the Jeddah municipality.
The municipality established three scientific labs, which are the substance lab, the health environment lab for water and food and the insect lab.
These support the work of fighting insects and preventing their breeding. It also set up the insect discovery unit, the mosquitoes’ definition unit, the bio-evaluation of insecticides, the mosquito-raising unit, housefly-raising unit and the insect lab.
This led to a decrease of mosquito breeding areas through daily samples that come to the labs. Labs provide regular reports and evaluate quality spraying techniques to fight mosquitoes that carry dengue fever.