College students will be the new warriors in the war against malaria. The Haffkine Institute of Training, Research and Testing (HITRT) will engage college students in collecting dead mosquito samples to zero down on the type and origin of the mosquitoes in the city, to fight the mosquito menace effectively.
Dr Abhay Chowdhary, director, HITRT said, “We will be doing entomological research of the mosquitoes, for which we are taking the help of college students from across the city. Some colleges have agreed to volunteer. We will start the program by the end of this month.”
Malaria has claimed 70 people after the onset of the monsoon this year, and the BMC’s official figures state that there has been a 30% drop in malaria cases since then.
“The idea behind involving college students was to get the kind of manpower we require for this kind of project. The students will have to bring dead mosquitoes from their area or neighbouring areas and submit it to us,” said an official from HITRT. While malaria cases were more prevalent in Worli, Lower Parel and Andheri (W), dengue cases were more in South Mumbai, and chikungunya cases in Kurla and Goregaon.
“Different areas have different kind of mosquitoes, and the types of diseases spread by the mosquitoes are also different. This research will help us identify different strains of mosquitoes, and control the outbreak of diseases spread by them,” added Dr Chowdhary.
“In the month of August, we had done similar research in Parel and Lalbaug. We found that Aedes mosquitoes, which spread dengue and chikungunya, were more in number in Parel, while Anopheles mosquitoes, which spread malaria, were more in Lalbaug area. This will help the BMC in the diagnosis of the disease,” said an official from HITRT.
The BMC also has roped in students for its malaria awareness program. “We have nearly 3,000 college students helping us spread malaria awareness across the city. We have conducted 540 drives so far. The college students are enthusiastic, and they will help us reach out to many people,” said Ajay Govale, program director, United Way Mumbai helpline, the third party auditor of the BMC’s clean up Mumbai campaign.
