The United Nations plans to launch a massive anti-dengue campaign this week in cyclone-hit areas of Myanmar where mosquitoes that carry the disease have become a major concern, an official said Monday. More than 1,700 volunteers will fan out across 22 priority areas in Yangon, Myanmar's biggest city, and the harder-hit Irrawaddy delta applying larvicide, a pesticide that kills the mosquito larva, to water containers and other areas where mosquitoes are likely to breed, said Leonard Ortega, the World Health Organization's dengue expert in Yangon. WHO and UNICEF are handling the operation with local aid groups, the Associated Press reported. «It is a major concern not just because this is dengue season, but because of the displacement of the population, the destruction of houses and because people are more exposed to mosquitoes,» Ortega said. The U.N. estimates a total of 2.4 million people were affected by the May 2-3 cyclone and warns that more than 1 million of those still need help, mostly in hard-to-reach spots in the Irrawaddy delta. The cyclone killed more than 78,000 people and left another 56,000 missing.
