IICT scientists bat for integrated control

Hyderabad: In the context of the rising cases of dengue fever (DF) in the twin cities, three scientists of the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT) Priyanka Sankoju, RV Sriram Uday and Anthony Addlagatta, submitted a paper at the recent International Conference on Boi-technological Research and Innovation for Sustainable Development (BioSD-2018), held in IICT from November 22-25, advocated the need for integrated control of dengue through predictive models in Telangana. They noted that the rise of dengue cases in urban areas is driven by complex interactions between hosts, vectors and viruses that are influenced by the environmental, climatic, rapid urbanisation, demographic and socio-economic factors. ‘Vector control remains the sole effective method to prevent dengue virus transmission’.

The scientists stressed that entomological surveillance was a key factor in alerting authorities for the risk of future dengue outbreaks, while noting that ‘until now natural DENV (dengue viras) infection of mosquito population has been scarcely used as an early warning system to monitor fluctuating prevalence of infected mosquitoes. The trio propose to study the adult/larval surveillance of Aedes Vectors followed by virus screening for stereotyping from the collected mosquito samples. By using these infection rates, vector density and climatic factors, a forecast model will be developed to identify the factors influencing dengue transmission in Telangana.

According to the paper, in recent years the dengue outbreaks are gradually increasing year by year in various State districts, with Hyderabad (Urban), Khammam and Adilabad severely affected. Till November 2016, the State reported 2,867 cases, the highest being contributed by Khammam with 1,396, followed by Hyderabad (urban) 1,013. The paper notes that DF is rapidly spreading in the world, particularly in tropical and sub-tropical countries, where the mosquito vectors Aedes Aegypti and Aedes Albopictus are present. An estimated 40 per cent of the global population is at risk of dengue virus infection. About 2.5 per cent of people affected by severe dengue die each year.