Delhi health minister asks govt departments to join drive against dengue

Even the Delhi CM had organised a meeting of all MLAs, district in-charges, ward in-charges and senior party leaders at his residence for sharing ideas for fighting dengue and malaria.

Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain on Friday directed all government establishments and civic agencies in the city to join chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s new initiative to check the spread of vector-borne diseases.

Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain directed all government establishments and civic agencies in the city to join chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s new initiative to check the spread of vector-borne diseases. (Sonu Mehta/HT FILE PHOTO)

Under the initiative, which Kejriwal announced on Wednesday, the chief minister said that from September 1, he shall invest 10 minutes every Sunday in inspecting every corner of his residence looking out for water accumulation to control mosquito breeding and urged residents to join him. The slogan of the citizen campaign is ‘Ten weeks, at 10 o’clock, for 10 minutes’, check for mosquito breeding in your homes and your surroundings to prevent diseases such as dengue and chikungunya.”

On Friday, Kejriwal organised a meeting of all MLAs, district in-charges, ward in-charges and senior party leaders at his residence for sharing ideas for fighting dengue and malaria, senior officials in the chief minister’s office said.

The directions were issued by the health minister after the meeting.

“Checking our own homes and surroundings to ensure there are no sources of clean stagnant water, in which Aedes mosquitoes can breed, does not take more than 10 minutes every Sunday… All the departments, agencies, boards and departments were instructed to give special emphasis to construction sites, which are one of the major sources of mosquitoes breeding. The minister directed the municipal corporations in particular to ensure that all construction sites within their jurisdiction must be inspected twice every week,” said a statement issued by Jain’s office.

While launching the drive, Kejriwal had said, “If you look at data for the last four years, there has been an 80% reduction in the number of dengue cases. In 2015, when the AAP government came to power, 15,867 cases and 60 deaths had been reported. In 2018, 2,798 cases and four deaths had been reported. We want this trend to continue and the number of cases to remain low.”

Dengue causes high fever, headache, muscle and joint pains and internal bleeding, leading to circulatory shock in severe cases. Chikungunya causes fever and joint pain that can last for months. The aedes aegypti mosquito, which transmits the diseases, such as dengue and chikungunya breeds in clean stagnant water.

The life cycle of the mosquito is about eight to 10 days.