Kill dengue before it claims another child

The death of a young boy of dengue after he was refused admission to various hospitals was tragic. The tragedy was heightened by the suicide of the heartbroken parents. While there is anger over this double tragedy, it is also important to note that hospitals can't keep pace with the growing population. Measures to reduce breeding places of mosquitoes, especially those transmitting dengue, are insufficient. While preventive measures should be improved, waterlogging as a result of overflowing drains, and the collection of puddles in and around colonies should be stopped, the need for more hospital beds remains.

Dengue is not the only deadly disease that the city has to worry about. In Delhi there have been cases of cerebral malaria, which if not treated, can be lethal. As in the case of dengue, only blood tests can spot it. There is a similar problem with antibiotic-resistant malaria. The poor who hardly get potable water, or travellers not careful about the quality of their water intake, fall prey to various types of hepatitis, which can also be dangerous.

There is a crying need for a revamped public health system. The ratio of CHHSs to the population has fallen substantially as have state-run medical clinics. In the latter, often the doctors are busy with private practice, while compounders sell the clinics’ medicines in the market. Taken together, the unhygienic conditions and inadequate resources for public health, in a society where Amartya Sen has calculated that 68.7 per cent of the people are below the poverty line, have caused serious health problems for the poor, who are largely out of the public health system. This is a governmental and societal callousness which must be reversed by health professionals and public bodies.

There must be adequate funding for more Central government and Delhi government hospitals to keep up with Delhi's ever-increasing population, apart from people in the nearby towns/cities who flock to the better hospitals in Delhi. In the dengue season an official order should be enforced to maximise hospital beds even by using spaces in medical colleges. Virologists had warned us at the very beginning that dengue, once present, would not go away. Other diseases are also spreading as doctors, clinics and hospitals had repeatedly warned. This warning was not taken seriously. Before another child dies, emergency measures must be taken. India's capital and other villages/towns/cities deserve no less.