No cause for alarm: Official JEDDAH: Jeddah Health Affairs has announced 11 confirmed cases of dengue fever but reassured the public that there is “no cause for alarm”, saying that the figure is not as high as previous years. “As a whole, the situation is not worrying, because there are only 11 confirmed cases of dengue fever out of a suspected 32 reported this week,” said Sami Badawoud, head of Jeddah Health Affairs. “The figure is okay compared to last year.” He also noted that the Mayor's Office is responsible for fighting the illness, while Health Affairs is tasked with “promoting awareness”. The tasks of the two authorities, he said, are clearly defined and do not clash. “The mayoralty is directly responsible for combating dengue fever and surveillance of the breeding grounds and Health Affairs has only an awareness role,” he said. “Our teams visit all houses in the governorate to explain to residents how to guard against it, but the rise in cases doesn't necessarily mean that we or the mayoralty are not carrying out our tasks properly.” According to Badawoud, dengue fever is best tackled by eradicating breeding grounds rather than fighting the mosquitoes which transmit the disease. “If we can stamp out the breeding grounds it will prevent the multiplication of new generations of mosquitoes carrying the disease,” he said. “More attention should be given to targeting the larvae rather than the mosquitoes.” He said that Health Affairs officials had observed in districts with water shortages – “Al-Sahifa, Al-Jamah, Madain Al-Fahd and Al-Kandara” – water kept in open tanks. “That provides the perfect environment for mosquito larvae,” he said. “The number of buildings under construction is another issue, as they hold water on the roofs and in rooms.” Badawoud said it is the mayoralty that determines the type of insecticide used to spray sites, not Health Affairs, and suggested that lessons could be learned from Malaysia where genetics have been used to render dengue-carrying mosquitoes harmless.
