Prevalence of Aedes mosquitoes during the first outbreak of Zika in Jaipur city, India

Abstract

The entomological investigations were made in residential, commercial and public places in various localities of Jaipur city during outbreak of Zika in October 2018 with a view to assist, support, supervise and advise the State Health Authorities for mosquito control activities in Zika reported area in the city. During the study, 2035 houses were randomly checked to detect Aedes mosquito breeding, out of which Aedes mosquito breeding could be found in 651 houses in residential area. Out of 7104 domestic containers, 1054 were positive for Aedes mosquito breeding in all kinds of water holding containers indoors or outdoors and House Index (HI), Container Index (CI) and Breteau Index (BI) were 37.45, 21.86 and 57,59 respectively. All commercial areas and public places were found positive with Aedes mosquito breeding and over all CI was 39.98. Aedes aegypti was the predominant species in various localities like residential, commercial and public places in Jaipur, while Aedes albopictus breeding were also detected in outdoor breeding habitats in the garden and parks. The highest positivity of Aedes breeding was recorded in houses or outdoor in cemented tank left in open spaces (2.11), followed by Mud pots for drinking of birds (1.39), domestic desert coolers (1.23), fountains (1.16), flower pots (0.84), Junk materials (0.75) and discarded tyres (0.59). Ae. aegypti breeding was detected in all the localities, where Zika cases were recorded. Ae. aegypti population was most prevalent in all the entire localities irrespective to the number of Zika cases.