Anti-dengue campaign relaunched in Delhi

Coronavirus cases in the national capital have started rising again, and to further compound the problem, other health issues are also coming to the fore. Due to the monsoons, the threat of dengue is looming large over Delhi again.

The last few years have seen a decline in the seasonal epidemic of dengue that engulfs Delhi. To ensure that the number of cases remains low this time as well, CM Arvind Kejriwal has relaunched his campaign of ‘10 weeks, 10 o’clock, 10 minutes every Sunday on dengue’.

 As part of the campaign, the CM has appealed to the people of Delhi to follow the routine every Sunday. “The people of Delhi have started their war against dengue again. For the next 10 weeks, on every Sunday, I will also change all the water stored in my house and eliminate the possibility of mosquitoes breeding. For the next 10 weeks, every Sunday at 10am we have to review our respective homes for 10 minutes. We have to save our families as well as Delhi from dengue. I am confident that the people of Delhi will best dengue this time as well,” said Kejriwal.

He further added, “Monsoon has arrived again in Delhi and we know how that leads to the breeding of mosquitoes. We in Delhi have to come together as a family to prevent the disease. Last year, all of us together, managed to prevent even a single death from dengue. This is a huge achievement for all of us. Over the last several years, our cases have also been at only 1400-1500, while earlier it used to be 14,000-15,000.”

For the past couple of years, it has been seen that starting September, dengue takes a dangerous form in the city within a month. Before the coronavirus infection, dengue in Delhi was a major concern of the government on rainy days every year, especially in October. According to one figure, in 2015, Delhi had 7,606 cases of dengue till the first week of October, while in 2016 and 2017 the number was 2133 and 2152, respectively. The Delhi government’s fresh fight against dengue began in 2015, when the city had 15,867 cases. There had been more than 60 deaths that year.

The results of the new campaign had been revealed in 2018, when the cases of dengue had decreased by 80% and total cases had come down to only 2,798. In 2018, 4 deaths had occurred while in 2019 the government controlled dengue to the extent that there were no deaths recorded.