Dengue has been allowed to go out of control

The failure of the city corporations to prevent the frightening outbreak of dengue has prompted the High Court to intervene and summon officials of the bodies and ask them what steps they have taken in this regard. Now the HC has asked to be informed how effective medicine to kill the mosquitoes and destroy their breeding grounds can be imported within seven days. It points out to the need to act with a greater expediency than what the corporations have so far demonstrated.

In fact, in the midst of a vicious dengue outbreak in Dhaka city, we are now hearing of cases of this terrible fever in other parts of the country. What is of greater concern: doctors and medical staff in places outside the capital neither have proper training in dengue management nor the NSI kits that help in instantly detecting whether a person has dengue. Due to these reasons, patients are being sent all the way to Dhaka for diagnosis and treatment in hospitals that are already overwhelmed with dengue patients. All these smack of a lack of planning and poor preparedness for a crisis that was predictable and preventable.

This is especially true for Dhaka where thousands of people have already been infected, with some patients (the actual number of deaths is unknown) dying of the fever within days. We have learnt that the insecticides used by the city corporations have been ineffective in containing the breeding of the Aedes mosquito. There is no justifiable explanation why our city corporations would not be able to replace the ineffective insecticides with effective ones, well in advance of a possible outbreak.   We would like an investigation into what preparations had the DCCs taken to fight the menace and how the funds allocated for this purpose were utilised. In this regard, those who were responsible in making sure the mosquitoes and their breeding grounds were destroyed, should be called to account.