Mosquitos on the 'chopping' block'

Two months from now, Patna and other municipal towns may join a campaign to drive out mosquitos from Bihar.

“Yes, we have had some meetings. Mosquitos are at the root of many diseases and this public health program aims to touch millions, "principal secretary of the department Deepak Kumar said..

The project, called Mosquito Menace Control Scheme (MMCS), would be initially implemented in the State capital on an experimental basis and then extended to other municipal towns. Kumar is hopeful, that the project would be launched in the next couple of months.

He said that the scheme would be largely executed by private agencies for which tenders have already been floated. The monitoring part will lie with the department and the NICD.

The selected agency would be be tasked for fogging each municipal ward at least once a week, wards with Aedes mosquito, which cause dengue, door-to-door insecticide spraying would be required. They would also carry out anti-larval spraying in drains and water pools. A cell consisting of entomologists, health officers and insect collectors would monitor the agency’s activities.

He said that 50 per cent of the payment would be made to the agency on the basis of physical inspection of each ward. Responsible local persons would help assess the performance of the agency. Forty per cent of the rest of the payment would be made on the basis of reduction of vector density in the ward, said the secretary. "We have requested the NICD to examine the vector density and give periodical reports to the department n the basis of which the last 10 per cent of the payment would be paid. The basis would be the reduction in malaria incidence," he said.

Deputy director-cum-officer-in-charge of the National Centre for Disease Control, Patna, (formerly NICD), Dr Ram Singh told HT that the department was ready to extend technical support to the state programme.