Mosquitoes’ humming fills air across Bahrain

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Mosquito infestation is becoming a huge matter of concern across Bahrain with citizens and residents urging the authorities to take immediate action. It is learnt that many residents and citizens have alerted their local municipality authorities to take immediate action.

“We have a huge mosquito problem here, and we really don’t know where it is breeding,” a resident of Umm Al Hassam told The Daily Tribune. “We are worried about our children. They are badly affected by stings and twice we took them to skin doctors after being worried about their health,” he added. An expatriate in Gudaibiya said he has never seen “this many mosquitoes in his 30-plus years of stay in the Kingdom”.

“I came here thirty years before from the Indian city of Mumbai, which is notorious for mosquitoes. One of the greatest reliefs I felt here was the absence of mosquitoes’ humming, which was never harmonious with my ears. “Now, I am seeing quite many mosquitoes here.

Though it can’t be compared to a Mumbai-like situation, I urge the authorities to nip the issue in the bud itself as many mosquito-borne diseases could pose a large threat to society.” Studies reveal that many varieties of mosquitoes exist in the Bahrain and a prominent of them are Aedes Aegypti, a kind of mosquito that is adept at breeding indoors because it prefers to lay its eggs on the walls of containers, rather than in pools or other natural water sources.

Lawmakers have many a time earlier called for action after receiving complaints of mosquito infestation outbreaks in many neighbourhoods across Bahrain. They have been asking the authorities to deploy pest control teams to address the menace in association with the Health Ministry. During the previous years, the Health Ministry dispatched pest control teams to control mosquito infestation in many areas including Galali, Tubli, Malkiya and Buhair Valley.

Globally, mosquito-borne diseases affect nearly 700 million people and kill close to one million yearly, according to the World Health Organisation. Mosquitoes swallow viruses or parasites living in the blood, which can be transferred to another individual through their bites.

While the mosquito may not be affected, these mosquito-borne diseases can cause immense suffering for humans. Common types of mosquito-borne diseases include Malaria, Dengue, West Nile virus, Chikungunya, Yellow Fever and Zika.

These diseases are not a present cause to worry as they have not been reported in Bahrain in any recent times. Bahrain was declared “Malaria-free” following the successful elimination of all indigenous transmission, over four decades ago, in 1979.

This success was attributed to vigorous control measures which included residual spraying, control of mosquito breeding sites and active case detection. According to various studies, imported Malaria cases have been reported once in a while since then, owing to a large immigrant population.