As monsoon brings with it the dreaded dengue, it is deja vu all over again: As was the case last year, we are unprepared to stop its spread this year. This time, the crisis has started from Sunsari in the east, Dharan being its epicentre. Eight people in the city have succumbed to dengue infection even as officials fail to give the exact number of those infected with the virus. What’s more, dengue has become endemic to Nepal, resulting in worrying numbers of infections and deaths year after year, which in turn points to the need for a well-coordinated, long-term containment plan.

When a video of Dharan Sub-Metropolitan City Mayor Harka Sampang visiting local areas emptying buckets of water surfaced on social media, it gave hope that he was committed to preventing the spread of the virus rather than waiting for its natural spread. Moreover, his action was expected to bring a chain reaction and inspire more people’s representatives to follow suit. But as it turns out, his action was more for public consumption rather than a genuine attempt to solve the impending crisis. Neither did Sampang follow up on his action nor did his counterparts think it necessary to take the initiative on their own.

After weeks of the crisis, ward level local units have started conducting free health check-ups and distributing medicines. That is a small positive step, but it is too little. Dengue has already taken the shape of a health crisis in some pockets and is expected to spread like wildfire in the absence of a well thought-out and timely intervention. Otherwise, other parts of the country could see the kind of havoc the disease wreaked on Kathmandu valley last year. The valley had run out of even paracetamol to control dengue fever.

In order to forestall such a dire situation, all three levels of government should come together to launch a nationwide search-and-destroy campaign, particularly in extreme risk areas like the Valley. But, sadly, when the Ministry of Health and Population invited elected officials from the Valley to discuss the risk of dengue spread, representatives from only six out of the 18 local levels turned up. This is the level of callousness our people’s representatives display even in life-and-death matters.

The 2022 crisis saw almost 54,000 persons being infected and at least 62 dying as the dengue virus spread to all of the country’s 77 districts. A mosquito-borne disease transmitted by female Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes, dengue is mostly a post-monsoon disease as the water bodies formed in the monsoon make for a perfect breeding ground. The virus has been prevalent, albeit in a far lesser number, throughout the year.

As minimum temperatures rise due to climate change, there is a risk of dengue infection being a permanent feature of our lives. This is evident in how mosquitoes, not least the dengue virus-bearing ones, are climbing up the hills, where these insects were a rarity earlier. This should wake us up, as we stand to lose more people to the infection if we don’t immediately strengthen our awareness, prevention and treatment regimes.