ENTOMOLOGICAL SURVEILLANCE OF AEDES MOSQUITOES AND DENGUE RISK IN LAKHIMPUR DISTRICT, ASSAM

An entomological survey was carried out between September 2024 to February 2025 across several urban and semi-urban localities of Lakhimpur district, Assam, to assess the population density of Aedes mosquitoes.The study involved larval sampling techniques commonly used in public health entomology.The data revealed unusually high values for key vector indices: the House Index was recorded at 55.78, the Container Index at 27.22 and the Breteau index at 121.82 during the study period.These figures suggest a significantly heightened risk for a dengue outbreak in the region.As per the breeding preference, discarded tyres were found to be mostly preferred as breeding site (35% positive) as compared to other solid wastes.With the huge population of Aedes and poor fever supervision activities, there is a chance that the people here may have acquired the infection while visiting other high risk cities or some intruder had brought the virus and the high Aedes population have triggered a local transmission.