15 hospitals found to be breeding grounds of mosquitoes, says Jain

Fifteen hospitals have been found to be breeding grounds of mosquito larvae in the city. The inspection was conducted by a team constituted by the Centre.

“Fifteen hospitals were found to be breeding ground for dengue and malaria mosquitoes. Dengue mosquitoes also breed in clean stagnant water. It is important to eliminate the breeding sources.

We have given directions to conduct inspections government offices, factories and hospitals,” said Health Minister Satyendra Jain.

The Delhi government will now run another round of intensive checking of all government hospitals and offices. Following this, challans will be issued if the buildings are found flouting the hygiene standards.

“In case of households, we have instructed to educate the members first instead of issuing challan the first time,” said Jain.  The names of the hospitals were not divulged.

The government has now directed all the hospitals to set up a surveillance committee comprising at least five members for prevention of mosquito breeding on the premises.

Members of the committee, which will include one representative from the Public Works Department, will be responsible for inspecting all the areas in the hospital.

Free kits for malaria and dengue will be available across 33 state government-run hospitals. Fever clinic and dengue corners will be set up if there is malaria and dengue cases go up. Hospitals have also been given instructions to increase the number of beds in the dengue wards, if the situation so arises.

“It is important that people do not indulge in self-medication during the season of dengue and malaria. One should also take care to not suffer from medication. Wrong medication can worsen the situation in case of dengue or malaria,” said Jain.

The government is also in the process of boosting the laboratories for blood sample tests for dengue and malaria. Resident doctors, nurses and other paramedic staff will be trained to detect the symptoms of dengue in patients so that they receive timely medication.

“The approach is to not create panic among patients but to educate the people on how to prevent it,” said Jain.

The civic bodies were also issued guidelines on how to effectively tackle the diseases with the onset of monsoon.