Monthly Archives: April 2019

Three Possible Solutions

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Engineering Solution for dengue in Yemen has been working on coming up with three solutions on how to tackle dengue fever in Yemen. After doing extensive research we came up with three solutions, which are the filtering lid, chlorine tablets, and the solar power propeller.

Solar power propeller: A new generation of mosquitos can be made every 14 days. The only necessity for the mosquito’s life cycle is still water. The female mosquito lays her egg is still standing water and that is the place of development for an egg to adult mosquito. The solar-powered propeller is placed in the bottom of water storage containers and create a light constant current in the water so the female mosquitoes are unable to lay their eggs. Thus, removing an entire breeding ground for every container with a solar power propeller.

Filtering lid: The filter will reduce turbidity in the water, thereby maintaining sediment zones in the tank (whereas if the incoming water from the rainfall will pour straight into the top of the tank, water will stir during every rain event and become murky). Sedimentation will be most heavily concentrated on the very bottom and on the very top of the water, so if we can reduce turbidity in the water and draw the water from the middle of the water level (using a floating intake filter or an installed pump filter connected to the lid), we’ll get the cleaner water. Mosquito-proof screens are best suited to stopping mosquitos entering our tank or bucket through rainfall overflow. The filtering lid will be placed on the bucket in order to filter out the rainwater to create cleaner drinkable water while also keeping the mosquitoes out of the bucket. The top of the filtering lid will have a circular mesh net that will prevent mosquitos from coming into contact with the water and stop the egg/larvae development

Chlorine Drops:  Mosquitos will not breed in chlorinated water. We would distribute chlorine drops to the people so they can add drops to their drinking water. Eight drops of 6% bleach are needed to purify a gallon of water. Chlorine is a cost-effective solution and safe for consumption so long as appropriate measurements are used, with appropriate education on the use of chlorine to purify water a significant number of the mosquito population could be reduced.

After doing the matrix we came to an agreement that we will focus on doing the Solar Power Propeller because based on our calculations the solar power will be more cost effective and it will be able to get the job done.

 

 

 

Solution Matrix

Decision Matrix

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During the research on Dengue in Yemen, we found that the risk for disease is year-round and is spread through mosquitos. Dengue fever is a viral infection from infected mosquito bites that causes fever, chills, muscle aches, and death with severe cases. There are many factors that promote this disease in the country. We found that mosquitos, improper storage of water, poor storm drainage, misdiagnosis, and lack of preventative measures are we believe are the top five problems of this dengue outbreak.

Mosquitoes thrive in areas with standing water, including puddles, water tanks, containers and old tires. The amount of water from rainfall is increasing the chances of developing a breeding site for these mosquitos since most outbreak cases. “At present, the main method to control or prevent the transmission of dengue virus is to combat vector mosquitoes through: preventing mosquitoes from accessing egg-laying habitats by environmental management and modification, covering, emptying and cleaning of domestic water storage containers on a weekly basis, and applying appropriate insecticides to water storage outdoor containers.” (“Dengue and sever dengue”, 2018) “Community participation tends to be successful in countries having stable and strong political systems. Community based programs involving local authorities to participate in eliminating breeding places of dengue mosquitoes are the only cost effective and sustainable way of ensuring control in any dengue-affected country and countries deficient in resources.” (Zahir, Ullah, Shah & Mussawar, 2016)

Dengue fever is a mosquito-borne disease that can oftentimes be mistaken for other illnesses such as malaria, this complicates the diagnosis of dengue fever. In many instances people do not show symptoms for dengue four to seven days after being infected. In order to diagnose dengue laboratory test are conducted. The main problem when it comes to diagnosing dengue fever is the misdiagnosis. It is often diagnosed and treated as malaria because the appropriate tests are not conducted patients are just assumed to have malaria. This ultimately has life-threatening consequences.

Because Dengue is a vector-borne disease, mosquitoes are a major issue for the people in Yemen who face this recurring outbreak year-round. For a person to be infected, one has to be bitten by a female mosquito. The mosquitoes are infected by drawing blood from those who are infected with the virus. I found that it usually takes a week for the mosquito to be able to transmit the virus while biting a healthy person, but with large amount of mosquitoes that window of time doesn’t mean much, when the other mosquitoes whose week has passed by are able to infect others. It can be seen that there is just a constant cycle of transmission, because once a person is infected with dengue, the mosquitoes then feed and then become infected and infect others when biting them, sometimes multiple people at a time. With the prevalence of standing water in Yemen, these insects are likely to follow because this provides homes for their eggs and the cycle continues.

The heavy rainfall in Yemen has create more areas of stagnant water. The land in Yemen is sandy and or eroded of vegetation because of constant flooding. There’s is also a lack of drainage because there are little tributaries. Also, Yemen was once fruitful from agricultural, but from neglect and the civil conflicts, the old fields are eroded play into poor drainage and still puddles of water.

Dengue fever is a mosquito-borne virus affecting nearly all of Yemen’s population. Due to the lack of preventives methods, such as vaccines, and adequate water system, the virus can spread rapidly causing mortality rate to skyrocket. Dengue fever is caused by Aedes aegypti virus; therefore a very sophisticated treatment is needed. There is currently no precise treatment for dengue fever; however, early intervention can help, depending on how severe it is. According to the World Health Organization, vaccines for dengue fever is under development. It is going through phase II and phases III clinical trials. Though there is currently no cure for dengue, however, there are preventive methods that can be taken to prevent and reduce the mode transmission. One way mosquitoes replicate is through water and unsanitary environment.  To prevent mosquitoes from breeding dispose of garbage and dirty water in a proper way and turn containers upside down. Storing drinking water in the sheltered area and make sure it is covered.

Each member of our group was assigned one of the five problems to research and then bring information to class to discuss each problem. After discussion, we agreed on the factors we think were most important compare to each problem and created a decision matrix. We based each problem on mortality rate, most population affected, most abundant, and most persistent throughout the year. After the matrix, we decided our problem to solve would be improper storage of water.