“The situation in Commonwealth Games sites is well under control except one site, which is a little cause of worry. Delhi is a safe city,” Union health secretary K Sujatha Rao said here.
Underplaying the threat, the official said at the moment a mild strain of dengue virus (serotype-1) is in circulation which causes large number of dengue cases but with few deaths. So far 1580 cases with four deaths were reported from Delhi.
While dug up roads and construction pits are providing a ready-made breeding site for dengue-causing Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, officials said that mosquitoes are breeding in many household items and overhead water tanks in multi-storied buildings too.
“Many a times, the rich and powerful in Delhi were denying the municipality workers access to their houses for checking the breeding sites,” Rao said.
They also denied access to some residential blocks as well as in the CWG village on security grounds, he added.
The Centre has now issued an access pass to the health workers for the Games village. Besides intensive application of pesticide and larvaecide application, larvae-eating fish species are being released in the large water puddles from where water cannot be pumped out.
No outbreak of epidemic
Denying dengue has assumed an epidemic proportion in the capital, the official said that outbreak in Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Thailand are more severe.
“It is unfortunate if some country issues travel advisory,” Rao said.
Published 10 September 2010, 19:29 IST