Study on Entomological Surveillance and its Significance during a Dengue Outbreak in the District of Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu, India

OBJECTIVES: To study the significance of entomological surveillance, the house index (HI), container index (CI), and Breteau index (BI) were determined to estimate the degree of a major dengue outbreak in Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu, India (Latitude: 8°42′N; Longitude: 77°42′E) in May 2012. METHODS: The HI, CI, and BI were determined in a primary health center (PHC) in the village of Maruthamputhur (Pappakudi taluk, Tirunelveli) by carrying out an antilarval (AL) work that involved door-to-door search for immature stages of Aedes spp. mosquitoes by trained field workers and volunteers. The work of field workers was evaluated by a junior and senior entomologist the following day. RESULTS: Before the AL work, the reported numbers of fever cases from Week 1 to 5 in Maruthamputhur were 211, 394, 244, 222, and 144 with two deaths. By contrast, after the AL work, these numbers were considerably reduced and there was no fever-related death (the HI was reduced from 48.2% to 1.6%, the CI from 28.6% to 0.4%, and the BI from 48.2 to 1.6). CONCLUSION: Because no specific medicine and vaccines are available to treat dengue fever and dengue hemorrhagic fever, entomological surveillance and its significance can be used to halt the outbreak of dengue as shown in this study.