When considering wildlife, it is easy to exclude the flying insects which are part and parcel of our daily lives but there is one such insect, the Aedes aegypti mosquito which should never be overlooked as people in Pakistan are learning to their cost.

This particular type of mosquito carries a debilitating, occasionally lethal, disease called ‘dengue fever’ and, in a growing number of cases, ‘dengue haemorrhagic fever’ which can be fatal, especially if contracted by children. These diseases were first noted over 200 years ago in different parts of the world but were unknown in Pakistan until as recently as 1994 and, since then, are becoming increasingly common during the summer monsoon season. In Lahore, dengue was first recorded in 2006 and reached epidemic proportions in 2008, 2010 and again this year and recent tests have proven that the Aedes aegypti mosquito responsible for this is happily breeding in places including the famous Lahore Canal.As one mosquito looks exactly like another to everyone except scientists and as a vaccine against dengue has yet to be developed, it is now wise to view every single mosquito as a possible source of infection and to declare open warfare against every single one of them around.

Aedes aegypti mosquitoes transmit dengue from one human being to another by transferring minute amounts of infected blood when they bite first one person and then the next. This means that if someone in the vicinity has already got dengue fever when a mosquito bites them, the next person to be bitten will catch it too.

The only reliable method of preventing dengue is to wipe out mosquitoes by implementing sensible environmental controls, both inside and outside your home. Mosquitoes, particularly Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, like to breed in manmade containers such as water storage tanks, wet garbage of all kinds and junk such as old tyres as these collect rainwater which provides the mosquitoes with perfect breeding grounds. It is therefore essential to keep the area around your home as clean as possible, to ensure that water tanks are properly covered, that rainwater puddles are cleaned up as fast as they form and that local government departments maintain strict hygiene controls throughout the areas under their jurisdiction.

Mosquitoes also lurk inside houses as we all know, hiding away in dark corners during the day and emerging during the evening and night hours. It is thus important to keep your home completely mosquito free by making sure that all water containers are kept covered at all times and that water is not allowed to lie around anywhere at all. If your home is a mosquito haven for one reason or another, it is advisable to have it completely fumigated by experts at regular intervals throughout the rainy season. Keeping everything clean and dry is a sensible mode of both prevention and protection from harm.