Dengue and Chikungunya Cases on the Rise: Is Kejriwal Absconding?

Is the Delhi CM, Arvind Kejriwal sleep walking through the rampant spread of Dengue and Chikungunya?

Will the Delhi CM take strict actions to combat chikungunya and dengue. (Photo Courtesy: The Quint) 

Every house in Delhi has at least three cases of Chikungunya. One specialised doctor per government hospital is not enough; the government’s efforts are just for namesake, nothing else.

Flora, Sangam Vihar Resident

Cases of both Chikungunya and Dengue have spiked massively this year.

284 fresh cases of dengue were reported last week, while Chikungunya cases have shot up by 20 percent.

Nine people lost their lives in Delhi due to dengue this year – the latest one being 25-year-old Irum. With the death toll rising every day, one cannot help but wonder why the government won’t provide more medical help.

What is the Delhi Government Doing to Combat Diseases?

The Delhi Government and the Delhi Municipal Corporation have initiated an awareness campaign, a Fever Clinic, Mobile Clinic and Mohalla Clinic:

• Fever Clinic has been established in hospitals like AIIMS, Safdarjung, and Lok Nayak.
  
• Mobile clinics go door-to-door to provide treatment and free medicines.
  
• The mohalla clinics are for treatment and tests.
  

Are the Mohalla Clinics of Any Use?

When Iftikar Ahmed went to Jakhir Nagar’s Colony Clinic, here’s what he faced:

The medicines dont match the illnesses! The medicines are causing side-affects like boils on the patients’ skins. If you ask them for the medicines pertaining to the illness, they shoo you away.

The Quint’s investigation too found the Mohalla Clinic to be shoddy.

In 1996, Delhi witnessed 10,252 cases of Chikungunya which killed 423 people.

Are Doctors Responsible?

Each Mohalla Clinic has one doctor and three other staff members treating 300 patients on an average which clearly means that the clinics are short staffed.

Delhi Government is Irresponsible: Doctors

Loknayak Jaiprakash Hospital’s CMO, Dr Ritu Sareen believes that the people are scared and the correct information needs to reach them.

People are just scared. Even if they have a basic viral, they want us to test them for Chikungunya and Dengue. This adds tremendously to our already existing pressure. Last year, there was a helpline for patients, it has been discontinued this year.

The doctors have cried themselves hoarse about the lack of infrastructure but no one is listening.

Is the Government doing enough to bring the state out of the clutches of Dengue and Chikungunya?

Video Editor: Purnendu Pritam