Mumbai: Mumbaikars will soon be able to use a mobile application named ‘Mumbai against Dengue,’ which has been introduced by BMC, with effective information on Dengue preventive care provided in simple language. Moreover, the civic body requested one family member in each family to download or use a dengue prevention app on the mobile phone.
Meanwhile, 78 dengue cases have been reported across the city in the first nine days of October. Officials said the app will be made available on play store in the next 48 hours.
What is Dengue?
Dengue is a deadly disease. This disease is spread by the 'Aedes aegypti' mosquito. Preventing the breeding of these mosquitoes is the most effective way to combat this disease.
Dr Sanjeev Kumar, Additional Municipal Commissioner, BMC said the mobile app ‘Mumbai Against Dengue’ was created on the initiative of the Pesticides Department of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and in collaboration with the Information Technology Department.
“When looking at the statistics of the last few years, about 80 percent of the total dengue patients were found to have breeding places of the 'Aedes aegypti' mosquito that spreads the dengue virus in the house or in the vicinity of the house of the patient. These mosquitoes, which transmit the dengue virus, originate in stagnant or stored clean water,” he said.
According to the information available from the survey, the larvae of dengue virus carrier mosquitoes prefer decorative plants like water pump, feng shui tree, bamboo plants, money plants. The origin of these mosquitoes has also been found in small amounts of clean water in various sources such as plates placed in the gallery or surrounding plant pots to collect excess water, air conditioning systems and refrigerator defrost trays.
“Dengue mosquito breeding sites are more likely to be at the indoor level as they are indoors. Therefore, it is very necessary to carry out a constant and careful inspection at the internal level of homes and societies. The mobile phone app 'Mumbai Against Dengue' has been developed with the aim of making the citizens easily aware of exactly how to do this inspection and what items should be checked,” said Dr Kumar.
Dr Mangala Gomare, Executive Health officer, said, "Every Mumbaikar is requested to install this app in his Android or IOS based mobile phone and inspect his own house according to the guidelines given in the app and make the necessary improvements as soon as possible, as this is the most effective measure to prevent the breeding of dengue-carrying mosquitoes.”
