Delhi has witnessed a sharp decline in dengue cases. According to Health Minister Satyendra Jain, the national capital has seen 80 percent decline in dengue cases in the last four years. He added that the fewer dengue cases reported so far this year is "no miracle". The health minister said that the reduction in number of the mosquito-borne disease comes from the fact that, “people have been made aware that prevention begins at home.”
"In 2015, the first year of our government (Aam Aadmi Party), 15,867 cases were reported. In 2018, the number came down to 2,798. Within these years, Delhi witnessed 80 percent decrease in dengue cases. This is no miracle,” The Hindu quoted Satyendra Jain saying.
The Delhi health minister noted that systems and checks were in place even before.
Employed every person in Delhi as a health inspector
Satyendra Jain said that residents of the capital are being made aware that dengue occurs due to “collective irresponsibility”.
“However, the preventive cycle has been reinforced this year. We have employed every person in Delhi as a health inspector to check the breeding of mosquitoes in and around their house and workplace. Awareness has been spread among the public that dengue occurs due to our collective irresponsibility,” the daily quoted Jain as saying.
Talking about what helped in fall in number of dengue cases in Delhi, Jain said, “We have to be in charge of our own health. We cannot wait for the government to come to our homes to check. This shift in responsibility has caused the fall in numbers.”
The Delhi government led by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has recently launched a campaign titled “10 Hafte, 10 Baje 10 Minute”. The campaign will be on till November 15, 2019.
Delhi has also reported fewer cases of dengue and chikungunya this year as compared to 2018.
Thirty-five cases of dengue were reported in the national capital in the last couple of weeks, taking the cases of mosquito-borne diseases to 92 till August 31, 2019.
In 2018, Delhi reported 2,798 cases of dengue and chikungunya and four people died due to the vector-borne diseases. No death has been reported so far this year.
Fever clinics in government hospitals
The Health Department had opened about 500 fever clinics in the government hospitals, dispensaries and mohalla clinics and also gave permission to private hospitals to increase their bed strength by 20 percent during the dengue season only for fever patients.
Dengue, a mosquito-borne viral disease, is transmitted by female mosquitoes mainly of the species Aedes aegypti. This mosquito also transmits chikungunya, Yellow Fever and Zika virus.
AAP slams BJP for ‘politicising’ Delhi government’s anti-dengue campaign
Aam Aadmi Party leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh lashed out at BJP chief Manoj Tiwari for claiming that Delhi government’s anti-dengue campaign had proven to be a failure as the MCD had found dengue larva at 143 locations.
Sanjay Singh said though the Delhi government’s anti-dengue campaign has received support from citizens and celebrities, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been opposing for political reasons.
“It is unfortunate that the BJP did not participate in this campaign. Not a single leader came out to participate in this initiative to make Delhi dengue-free. When PM Modi came up with Swachh Bharat Campaign, CM Kejriwal joined it and urged the citizens to join too,” Sanjay Singh said.