Mosquito Borne diseases like Dengue, Chikungunya and now Zika spreading their wings and taking toll

We in India do get to hear about the spread of Dengue, Malaria as well as Chikungunya. At some places, many cases have been reported, with some deaths. Also, with floods in some parts of Northern, North-Central and Eastern regions, there are more expected cases.

As if these were not enough, we have the Zika virus which is also transmitted through mosquitoes, and has started taking its toll in Singapore- where more than 150 cases have been reported from Singapore. Now, this disease has also spread to Malaysia.

I read and heard in news that this disease has spread in United States and some African countries. Highly populated or highly densely populated countries like India, Pakistan and Indonesia are at high risk. I am not sure how China has planned to deal with it. News scenes showed Government agencies in Malaysia fumigating a lot. In India too I saw some tempos coming and doing fumigation, but it does not covers a whole lot of areas.

Moreover Zika can cause a birth defect in kids born to the pregnant ladies, and some cases have come out in Brazil- watching some of such kids was something that makes one cry.

I have a question- why are these diseases spreading so rapidly. I do hear that thousands of men in Alexander’s army died due to Malaria long time ago, when returning from India. There have been epidemics in the past too. May be these are nature’s way to keep humans in check? Diabolical statement, but perhaps even truer in times, when we the human beings are blatantly exploiting the nature’s resources in the name of development in form of Human settlements, Road, Rail and Air connectivity.

The floods, droughts and growing diseases all point to an unstable Earth ecosystem.

But we have a solution- to share our knowledge, skills and compassion, and spread Hygiene and cleanliness all around.

I believe more than power plants, Better roads, Sea and Airports, we first need better hygiene, sanitation and better availability of clean drinking water.

Harappan civilization which supposedly flourished between 2500 B.C and 1500 B.C had “covered” drains which are still not there in India in many places- even in big cities. I think this could be the situation in many other places too.

The Clean India(Or Swacch Bharat) program in India and similar programs are good ones, but their implementation needs to be consistent and long lasting.

And yes, cleanliness and hygiene is something that we cannot just leave to the Governments and authorities but have to start with ourselves too.

But yes, some diseases will still have to be tackled in a reactive ways since we cannot predict everything.

 Source: AlJazeera News watching and rest are own views.