World Health Day 2014 – Preventing Vector Borne Diseases

Vector borne diseases infect more than 1 billion and kill more than one billion people yearly, worldwide. Statistics say that around half of the World’s population is at the risk of contracting vector borne diseases like malaria, dengue, yellow fever, Lyme disease etc. Which are carried by mosquitoes, ticks, houseflies, water snails and other vectors.

Preventing Vector Borne Diseases

This year’s World Health Day is themed with a slogan – “Small Bite, Big Threat” to highlight the threat of vector borne diseases as they are the greatest contributors of human mortality.

World Health Day 2014

So it becomes a very important and also an individual responsibility to prevent the spread of vector borne diseases by curbing the conditions which can serve as potential breeding grounds of various vectors responsible for spreading fatal diseases.

Read on to know about diseases caused by the most common vectors – Mosquitoes and Houseflies, what all you can do about preventing and controlling the spread of diseases caused by these vectors so as to stay protected.

The Following are the details about World Health Day 2014 – Preventing Vector Borne Diseases

Mosquito Menace!

Mosquitoes cause a host of diseases in humans and also in other mammals. The most prevalent diseases caused by mosquitoes in India include the following –

• Malaria
• Yellow Fever (Jaundice)
• Dengue

These diseases affect millions of people per year and cause death in lakhs.

Precautions to be taken to avoid these infections-

• Do not let water stagnate in or around your home and locality. If you cannot control water stagnation, you should spray kerosene all over the stagnant water to prevent mosquito breeding.
• Install mosquito screens to your windows and use commercial mosquito repellents or a mosquito net around your bed.
• Use mosquito repellent creams on all exposed areas of your body. Tea tree oil or citronella oil can be used if you prefer natural mosquito repellents
• Do not wear dark colored clothing and keep yourselves sweat free as mosquitoes get attracted to warmth and sweat.

Houseflies – Porters of Infections

Houseflies carry a host of infections and are responsible for lakhs of deaths every year, all over India. They transmit the following diseases –

• Typhoid fevers
• Cholera
• Conjunctivitis
• Diarrhea and Dysenteries

What Can You Do To Deter Houseflies

• Never leave food items uncovered, even the discarded food items.
• Keep your house neat and clean, especially, the kitchen.
• Always cover the dustbins, open dustbins attract flies.
• To prevent flies from entering your house, use pyrethrum spray on and around windows and doorways.
• Alternatively, you can rub doorways and windows with onion juice or lavender oil to deter flies away.
• If you want to shoo house flies away from your house, shut all the light sources to darken the home but leave either a door or window open. This will cause the flies to follow their way out towards the light.

Vector control is the first step towards controlling vector borne diseases. Stay protected and also do your part to curb the vector population and the spread of vector borne diseases in your locality for a safe and healthy living environment.

The above are the details above World Health Day 2014.