No meeting of AIIMS Committee for hygiene in 4 yrs

New Delhi, Oct 15: Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss has asked AIIMS Director Dr P Venugopal to state the reasons for not holding the meeting for past four years of the Hospital Affairs committee, looking after the cleanliness of the premises which allegedly led to dengue endemic in the capital.

In a letter to Dr Venugopal, the minister asked to state the cause for not holding the meeting of the nine-member committee looking after the administration and cleanliness in the campus of the premier institute since December 2002.

The municipal authorities of Delhi had served 27 notices to the AIIMS in past several months for keeping the premises clean and hygienic. However, the hospital administration ignored the notices as the committee had not met during the period.

Dr Venugopal, the ex-officio secretary of the committee headed by the Director General of Health Services, had not convened meeting of the committee ever since he took over as Director since July 1, 2003.

Prof Bir Singh, a Professor of Community Medicine said dengue had been at an endemic stage through out and had become active since August this year.

Asked about so many cases among the people residing in the AIIMS campus, Dr Singh said dengue had been in the capital since 1980s and it became active almost every year.

Talking about the Hospital Affairs Committee, he said he was not a member of the committee and did not know anything about it.

The open drain inside the campus, which is blamed for the breeding ground of mosquitoes, would be covered from tomorrow, he said.

The Delhi High Court, while hearing a PIL, had pulled up the civic authorities of Delhi for not covering the open drain.

The government had sanctioned Rs 21 crore to the authorities for covering the drain since last year, which runs through the campus of the premier institute.

Had the hospital and municipal authorities acted on time, dengue would not have occurred almost every year.

The panic button was pressed when a doctor of the AIIMS died of dengue; and two grandsons and son-in-law of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh were admitted of dengue in the premier institute.

At least 29 died and more than 1373 have been afflicted of dengue in past two months in the capital.

UNI

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