Delhi High Court today warned all hospitals in the national Capital not to deny admission to dengue and chikungunya patients and asked the Centre and AAP government to engage retired personnel, if needed, to increase strength of doctors and paramedics to meet exigencies. “On Saturday, there was a death of a patient due to co-morbidity”, Dr JC Passsey, Medical Superintendent at Lok Nayak Hospital told The Pioneer.
Advertisement
The chikungunya outbreak in the national capital is the worst in the last six years.
Delhi has so far witnessed over 30 deaths from vector borne diseases like dengue and chikungunya. “No deaths were recorded in these five years”, a civic official told PTI.
As per the municipal report, over 1,000 people have been affected by chikungunya till the second week of September.
At least 15 deaths due to chikungunya complications have been recorded at various hospitals in the city but the civic bodies have kept the death tally at zero.
This year till September 11, at least 14,656 chikungunya cases have been reported across the country, with Karnataka alone accounting for 9,427 cases.
For chikungunya, among the three corporations, SDMC has recored 304 cases, followed by 244 in areas under the North Delhi Municipal Corporation and 80 under the East Delhi Municipal Corporation.
Hospitals are continuing to see rising number of cases, even as Delhi Health Ministry has asserted that it was all prepared to combat the mosquito menace.
LNJP Hospital is the biggest under the Delhi government and the first dengue death of this season was also reported here.
AIIMS is getting several suspected dengue patients everyday in its fever clinics, though less number are showing confirmed cases compared to chikungunya for which 1,440 blood samples have tested positive till September 13. “It is expected to substantially reduce the possibility of vector borne diseases”, he said.
Advertisement
But experts have time and again highlighted the pitfalls of excessive focus on fogging which they say does not achieve anything more than producing a feel-good effect among people, as it hits only the adult mosquitoes, “and not the larvae that are the source of breeding”.
