Dengue fever hits Indian PM's family [The Australian]
Bruce Loudon October 06, 2006
A DEADLY outbreak of dengue fever in New Delhi has struck at the heart of India's power elite.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's son-in-law and two grandsons had been rushed to hospital suffering symptoms, it was disclosed yesterday.
Madhav, 17, son of the Prime Minister's eldest daughter, Upender, and Rohan, 11, son of his second daughter, Daman, were first admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Science.
A little later, Madhav's father, Delhi university professor Vijay Tanhka, was also rushed to hospital with similar dengue symptoms.
The high-profile admissions added a new dimension to a health crisis that has been building in New Delhi over the past two weeks and which is causing widespread apprehension among the city's 16 million inhabitants.
Delhi's municipal authorities, for their own reasons, have refused to declare an epidemic.
In just a few days, nearly 600 cases of dengue have been officially reported in Delhi, with about 38 deaths.
But health analysts believe those figures understate the situation, since in impoverished slum areas, where the outbreak is claiming most of its victims, there is little effective reporting of cases.
Dr Singh's official residence is a heavily guarded bungalow in New Delhi's Racecourse Road area, in the heart of what is known as the "VVIP" part of the city that dates back to the British Raj, and Professor Tanhka lives on the campus of Delhi university.
Both are in areas far removed from the city's teeming and impoverished underbelly. Mosquito control teams have now moved into the Racecourse Road area on what are called "fogging" operations aimed at killing the deadly Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, which cause dengue.
The mosquito strikes mainly during daylight hours. People have been advised to wear long-sleeved shirts and long trousers and to cover themselves in mosquito repellent.
At the same time, pest control teams from the municipal council are scouring the city trying to uncover breeding areas for the mosquitoes, with air-conditioners and water coolers believed to be the principal culprits.
Alarm about the outbreak has been heightened by the fact that deaths from dengue have occurred at no less than the AllIndia Institute of Medical Science - India's biggest and most prestigious medical institution. And in reporting the outbreak, local newspapers have uncovered appalling sanitary conditions in some parts of the institute that are receptive breeding grounds for the vectors.
In terms of numbers, the outbreak is, as yet, well below that of the seasonal outbreak at the same time 10 years ago when more than 10,000 cases were reported in Delhi, with 423 deaths.
But since then, there has been a steady decline in dengue cases, and no deaths reported in some years.
The protracted heat and humidity this year, however, has created ideal breeding conditions for the mosquito and that, coupled with inadequate control measures, appears to have sparked the outbreak. |
