YANGON Division Health Department is leading a community-based push to protect residents against dengue fever, said department head Dr Hla Myint.
Trained volunteers, each of whom will act as the leader of 10 households, will carry out the project to help wipe out the disease.

Working with family members, township health committees and health department staff, their main activities involve safeguarding the water supplies where the mosquitoes that carry the disease breed, especially during the 10-day period that larvae infest clean water before becoming fully-grown mosquitoes.

“To prevent dengue fever, we need to kill larvae that grow in clean water. The life of a grub is 10 days and a mosquito’s life is between 20 and 30 days. It is more difficult to wipe out mosquitoes than larvae from clean water. We add the pesticide Abate to big water tanks in affected areas,” said Dr Hla Myint.

In early May, teams added 6000 kilograms of Abate in 25 quarters of 11 townships in Yangon, and are continuing operations, Dr Hla Myint told The Myanmar Times.

It is believed that 85 percent of mosquitoes breed in these tanks, according to research.

In May 2008, there were 252 dengue fever victims recorded. As of mid-May there were 72 patients and no deaths, said Dr Hla Myint.