Wealthy Dengue Breeders

Civic inspectors were unpleasantly surprised to find that some of the wealthy Bollywood film stars are the most irresponsible breeders of dengue. Dengue (Aedes aegypti) mosquitoes are found mostly in urban areas and breed wherever there is stagnt water. The size of the water container or water body is immaterial as long as the water is stagnt. An upturned bottle cap, a saucer under a potted plant, a flowerpot, an open overhead tank, dishes for pets, holes in trees and bamboo ends are all adequate breeding grounds for dengue mosquitoes as long as they contain some stagnt water. And dengue mosquitoes generally bite indoors. That is why leaving junk like broken pots and pans that can retain even small amounts of stagnt water outside the house constitutes invitations to dengue mosquitoes to breed and bite. It is significant that many of the offenders in this regard happen to be wealthy film stars despite the fact that they are reasobly educated and have the means to be informed on the subject. What is even more significant is their attitude to dengue despite the fact that the disease killed film producer Yash Chopra in 2012. Among the film stars affected by the disease in the past are Karee Kapoor, Ranveer Singh, Vir Das and Lisa Haydon. Three people have died of dengue in Mumbai alone this year, and 2,496 people are being treated for the disease in the hospitals of the city. Film stars Anil Kapoor, Juhi Chawla and Jitendra have been fined by the Mumbai civic inspectors, and Amit Kumar, son of the late Kishore Kumar has been let off with a warning. What is indeed surprising is that even their fines and the large number of dengue patients in Mimbai have not improved the civic duties of the wealthy in respect of a disease that has affected Mumbai so severely.