Dengue Scare:

August 17/2011: The whole State of Orissa is concerned and a bit worried about this current epidemic called 'Dengue' fever. Now, this is not an unknown disease. Dengue has been playing havoc for at least a decade or so in northern India, especially in places like Delhi and neighboring towns of the NCR. Simple antidotes are not easily available for this menace. The only good thing to do is to be inpidually careful. Keeping the surroundings dry and clean is an absolute must. Special care needs to be taken about fresh rain water stagnating in utensils, containers, coolers, and even abandoned motor tyres, that become heaven for breeding of that particular kind of mosquito larvae. We have, sure enough, become a very careless and adamant people who wish to drown our personal failures by blaming the 'system' or government. No doubt, the state's Health department should have reacted with more speed and alacrity than the way it has done now. That way, maybe, these more than 15 people who lost their lives could have been saved. It is clearly understood that that is not what happened. We should stop blaming the administration simply because the system is also run by people who are equally careless and callous as we are. Expecting that doctors would be despatched from some imaginary pool of experienced hands is also not going to take place. Most doctors posted in rural Orissa should have by now, for their own benefit, familiarized themselves with such common and frequently occurring diseases as dengue. Sadly, they do not see the need for such efficiency at their personal levels.

The other interesting factor to be noted is that dengue generally is spotted in urban or semi urban pockets. This time through in Orissa, starting from Talcher, this disease has spread out into a great geographical area of the State. However, this particular town is known for its coal mining activities and lately, for a few industries coming up in its hinterland. This would imply huge amounts of vehicular traffic, concentration of labor living in unhygienic conditions and much available space for breeding of mosquitoes. Although the land is dry and parched most of the year, during monsoon the environs change dramatically. Undulating land becomes green and the heat goes down. Along with this attractive option comes stagnant water which is not taken notice of by women and men of the households, thereby promoting growth of the carriers of diseases like malaria, filaria and now dengue.

As a primary step, the government should have carried out campaigns to make people aware of the methods of protecting themselves from this menace. This educational drive could take place every year just as the onset of the monsoon is noticed. Simultaneously, doctors not in the district headquarters alone but at the PHC and even lower levels must be given refresher courses on monsoon related diseases little prior to the season changing. Requisite medicines must be stocked at all levels and these exercises must be carried out as an annual practice, not a knee jerk reaction to a crisis after it has become full blown.

Somehow, in Orissa, we do not see the habit of check lists being maintained for regularity of administrative steps to be adopted beforehand to avoid calamities or at least minimize the damages. This is a State where floods, inundation and water borne diseases were very common each year till recently when the amount of rain has petered out completely due to ecological disturbances. Now we are facing a drought like situation which seems to be getting more severe each passing day. There will definitely be acute shortage of drinking water in the coming months as the dry spell will play havoc with wells, ponds and even ground water. As earlier floods used to take the state administration by surprise each year, so also this drought and ensuing water shortages will completely baffle the people who are expected to take care of the State. Orissa enjoyed nearly 10% of fresh water of the whole sub continent flowing through its geographical limits to join the ocean, yet it may soon turn arid and become a desert unless we all take steps to reverse the trend. Floods may have become history for Orissa, however, water deficiency is capable of making Orissa, the State and its people, a part of history.