Dengue in Delhi: Health minister directs officials to intensify anti-larval activities

New Delhi

Health minister Saurabh Bharadwaj on Monday directed officials to intensify fogging and sanitation campaigns in dengue-prone areas, and asked chiefs of Delhi government hospitals to take necessary measures to take necessary measures to ensure the availability of medicines and beds for dengue patients in hospitals. The minister also asked hospitals to ensure mosquito nets are provided to dengue patients and prompt attention is given to patients visiting with symptoms of dengue.

The minister issued the directions in a multi-department meeting at the Delhi secretariat. This was the second meeting held within a week, with the last meeting held on Saturday, given that Delhi has logged 246 cases of dengue in the first half of the year, which is over twice last year’s count.

Bharadwaj also warned hospitals and officers concerned about negligence in fighting vector-borne diseases, threatening strict action in case of a violation.

In a statement, the minister’s office said officials attending the meeting apprised the minister of measures taken for dengue patients, such as making separate treatment arrangements, reserving beds, and setting up isolation areas for dengue and malaria patients to ensure the disease does not spread.

Dengue has largely been associated with the monsoon, with mosquito breeding spiking between June and September, when stagnant water provides the optimal conditions for the Aedes mosquitoes, the carriers of the dengue virus.

Cases typically spike between July and November, and the worst dengue outbreak was in 2015, when the city logged 15,867 cases and 60 deaths — an unusual spike fuelled by a virulent strain.

In the meeting, it was also decided that the health department would run awareness campaigns. “Saurabh Bharadwaj also issued instructions to the department officials to run awareness campaigns to identify the symptoms of dengue and malaria and to prevent it. The health minister also directed all hospitals to put up information about the symptoms to identify diseases like dengue and malaria in their respective hospitals, so that the patients coming to the hospital get adequate information in this regard. The minister also suggested that health department officials take the help of media and social media to run awareness campaigns,” the minister’s office said.

The awareness campaign will also be run in schools.

“The minister directed officials of all hospitals present in the meeting to formulate rules to deal with serious diseases like dengue and malaria in their hospitals and ensure that those rules are strictly followed regularly,” the minister’s office said.