Ramadoss clean chit to MCD/NDMC ; Dengue kills 13, 589 ill

New Delhi, Oct 4 (UNI) Even while 13 people died of dengue and over 589 were infected, including two grandsons of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Health Minister Anbumoni Ramadoss today gave a clean chit to the Delhi government and NDMC/MCD about the efforts to contain the disease.

''I am satisfied with the response of the Delhi government, MCD and NDMC in containing the disease. They have done tremendous work during the past few months issuing a lot of challans, but due to the construction activities going and unseasonal rains the mosquito breeding was more this time resulting in the escalation of the disease,'' Dr Ramadoss told reporters here.

About 581 cases were reported till last evening which went upto 589 today with 352 from Delhi alone while 132 were from Uttar Pradesh, 52 Haryana and nine from Rajasthan.

The government has enough medicine, blood and equipment to deal with the dengue outbreak. He said Delhi was equipped with enough medicines, doctors and diagnostic kits being available to deal with the disease.

However, he emphasised the need to create more awareness about the disease and people adopting measures to stop mosquito breeding.

About the outbreak of dengue at AIIMS, he said that notice has been given to the hospital administration to identify and fix the responibility for mosquito breeding in the premier hospital.

However, according to the reports received a lot of construction activities are also going on in AIIMS which led to stagnation of water contributing to the outbreak of the disease, he said.

Asked when was the response expected, the minister said ''soon.'' Refusing to declare dengue as an epidemic, Dr Ramadoss, who has called a meeting of the health ministers of northern states tomorrow to discuss the issue of dengue, said that the government wants to avoid unnecessary panic and apprehensions on the issue.

On the high alert sounded and massive efforts made in case of bird flu and SARS while not much intensive steps were taken in this regard, Dr Ramadoss said that the nature of the disease was different in both the cases. while bird flu and SARS had no cure or vaccine, it was not so in the case of dengue which was perfectly curable if treated properly on time.

Denying the reports of AIIMS Institute body meeting proposed on October 10 was meant to discuss the dengue outbreak there, Dr Ramadoss said that the meeting was scheduled much earlier and it was a routine meeting to discuss the various issues concerning AIIMS. Asked whether the meeting would discuss Valiathan Committee report and AIIMS Director Venugopal issue, Dr Ramadoss refused to comment.

UNI AJ RP HS1822