In the first dengue death reported in the national Capital this season, a 12-year-old boy succumbed to the vector-borne disease, as per
report released by the three municipal corporations of Delhi on Monday.
The report also revealed 153 fresh cases of dengue, 50 cases of malaria and 44 fresh cases of chikungunya till August 19. With the spurt, the total cases of dengue, malaria and chikungunya recorded this year are 657, 451 and 311 respectively.
“The boy, identified as Nitish Kumar, hailed from Bihar and was residing in Safdarjung area in south Delhi. He died at the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital,” South Delhi Mayor Kamaljeet Sehrawat said.
Authorities at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital said, “The boy was brought to the hospital on July 30 and died due to dengue haemorrhagic fever on August 1.” Of the 657 dengue cases, 325 affected people were residents of Delhi while the rest of the cases diagnosed were traced to other States.
According to experts, Municipal Corporations’ reliance on costly insecticides to control the mosquito menace will not yield the desired results due to lack of transparency in preventive measures.
Explaining the process, right from procurement of insecticides from a particular company to their distribution to the District Heath Officers (DHOs), they said, “First insecticides are purchased by MCDs and then allotted to DHOs on demand, but there is no mechanism to check whether the DHOs are further using the insecticides in a desired quantity or are just spraying water.”
They further highlighted that a spraying machine tank used for spraying costs Rs 1.5 lakh while the insecticides cost Rs 1,050 per kg. To make a water cooler dengue-free costs just Rs 25, said sources. Most importantly, there is no measure to check whether insecticides worth Rs 1.5 lakh (in a single tank) are being used to spray or not.
The SDMC Mayor has decided to call a high-level meeting in this regard to address the issue.
At least 15 fatalities were reported last year at various hospitals in the city due to complications triggered by chikungunya, though the civic bodies have kept the death tally at zero.
At least 21 deaths due to dengue were reported last year at various hospitals, including nine at AIIMS, though the official tally of the civic bodies stood at 10. Seventeen deaths suspected to be due to malaria in 2016 were also reported by the civic bodies.
In one of the worst outbreaks, a total of 12,221 chikungunya cases were reported in Delhi till December 24, 2016, out of which 9,749 were confirmed.