Dengue death toll rises to 15, over 2,000 affected

Dengue scare in the national capital escalated on Thursday with a three-year-old girl becoming the 15th victim on the list of dead as the number of people down with the mosquito-borne fever crossed 2,000.

The Delhi government, which has been accused of not effectively dealing with the situation, said it was mulling bringing an ordinance to punish private hospitals refusing to provide treatment to patients in emergency situations.

Little Neha died on Wednesday at the Saket City hospital and her distraught parents alleged that one government hospital and a private nursing home in South Delhi did not provide proper treatment for dengue to her.

Neha, a resident of Sangam Vihar area, is the third child to die of dengue in the city allegedly due to medical negligence.

As hospitals continued to be flooded with dengue patients, municipal officials said the total number of cases crossed the 2,000-mark this year out of which around 1200 were reported in the last two weeks.

Officials said the new Ordinance may have provisions for cancellation of registration of hospitals violating government's directive.

On Wednesday, Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain had directed private hospitals to increase their bed capacity by 10-20 per cent as soon as possible to treat dengue patients. He had also ordered Delhi government-run hospitals to increase beds by 1,000 by Sunday.

As dengue cases continued to surge, the Aam Aadmi Party said it will set up "fever clinics" across Delhi to offer free treatment to the patients. The ruling party accused the Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled civic bodies of "total failure" in containing spread of the vector-borne disease.

Concerned over the rapid spread of dengue and non- availability of beds in Delhi hospitals, the Home ministry on Thursday reviewed the situation and directed the city government to take all possible steps to ameliorate people's sufferings.

Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi held a meeting with Delhi Chief Secretary K K Sharma, who briefed him about the steps taken by the Delhi government to check the spread of dengue.

Mehrishi also assured the city government of all central assistance to handle the situation, official sources said.

A blame game erupted between the Delhi government and the BJP-run municipal corporations on dealing with the dengue situation.

Addressing a news conference, AAP Delhi unit party secretary Dilip Pandey claimed that health inspectors of municipal corporations, who are supposed to check spread of dengue-causing mosquito, were not doing their job properly.

On their part, the civic bodies accused the AAP government of not releasing adequate funds to tackle dengue menace.

Pandey said the party has approached doctors and these medicos will provide "free treatment" to dengue patients across Delhi.