The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) is taking action against mosquito-borne diseases like dengue, malaria, and chikungunya. They are treating it as a urgent mission. However, the current statistics about these diseases in Delhi are not known.
The MCD’s public health department inspected 197 police stations in its 12 zones and found 83 places where mosquitoes could breed. They have visited almost 3 crore houses and sprayed insecticide in over 14 lakh houses. They have also issued 1.3 lakh legal notices and fined over 22,000 violators, collecting over Rs. 73 lakhs. They have also released larva-eating fishes at 203 locations to stop mosquito breeding.
According to the MCD’s analysis, 40% of drums, haudis, and jerry cans had mosquito breeding. 35% of desert coolers and construction sites had mosquito breeding, while 15% of flower pots had mosquito breeding. However, the MCD has not released their weekly report on vector-borne diseases (VBD) for the past six weeks, so we don’t know the number of dengue, malaria, and chikungunya cases.
The last available MCD report from August 7 showed 85 cases of malaria and 348 cases of dengue in Delhi for that year. After reporting 105 cases of dengue in one week, the MCD stopped disclosing case numbers.
MCD officials say that there are enough beds and fogging equipment for mosquito control and that the situation is under control despite the usual increase in cases during humid weather.
However, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has accused the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)-led MCD of not getting enough dengue test kits this year. They claim that only 500 test kits were requested by 35 Delhi hospitals, which can do around 1,300-1,400 tests each, showing potential testing limitations.
The situation is still ongoing, with the MCD’s campaign against mosquito-borne diseases, but we don’t know the exact scale of the outbreak in Delhi because there hasn’t been recent official data.
