Official data from civic-run hospitals alone show a 176% rise in dengue
cases in 2011-12, while the number of those affected by malaria saw a
71% increase from 2008-09. Cholera
cases—178, a rise of 85%—add to the medical nightmare that’s been
officially recorded. While experts are surprised by the cholera cases, BMC
officials admit that it has been kept under wraps as its mere
occurrence could attract international travel sanctions. Cholera is
highly infectious and can spread within the community in a few hours.

What is even more worrying is that these figures could just be the tip
of the iceberg as it does not take into account people getting treated
at private hospitals and clinics, according to Praja Foundation that
surveyed around 15,000 households.

The NGO in its white paper
said that if private healthcare services were taken into account, an
estimated 3.9 lakh people were affected by malaria in 2011-12, or in
other words there were 148 cases per 1,000 households. The official
figure is only 29,828 cases of malaria but there were 64 deaths reported
in 2011 alone.

Dr Hemant Thacker, who consults in Jaslok and
Breach Candy Hospitals, said the reason why dengue cases have been going
up was due to the virus that spreads the disease. “Dengue is caused by a
virus, while malaria is caused by a parasite called plasmodium. Though
the lifespan of a virus is only 5-15 days, due to sudden weather
changes, the virus remains active causing dengue,” he said, adding that
the BMC has been able to control malaria cases in the city. “But the BMC
figures are not representative of the whole city as a majority of the
patients consult private hospitals,” he said.

“Our report on
the state of health of Mumbai raises several red flags. The survey
revealed that more than 30% of households spend 11% or more of their
annual income on hospitals and medical costs. The survey also shows that
almost 80% Mumbaikars did not have a medical insurance. Also, 75% of
Mumbaikars use private sources, hence, there is a need for a strong
mechanism to collect data from them.” said Nitai Mehta, founder trustee
of Praja Foundation.

An average of 20,038 persons are packed
into every square kilometre in the island city and 20,925 persons in the
extended suburbs.

BMC health officer Dr Arun Bamne said
diseases like malaria and diarrhoea come under non-notifiable diseases,
meaning the private hospitals do not notify the BMC when they get
patients suffering from these ailments. While dengue and cholera are
notifiable, tuberculosis has come in this category only this year.

“We have not received the Praja Foundation report yet, so it will not
be right to comment on the report. We take into consideration only the
official figures,” said Dr Bamne.

Dr Mangesh Pednekar, director of Healis Sekhsaria Institute for Public Health
who has monitored and endorsed the report, said the city needs a better
surveillance system in place. “Surveillance systems can provide
accurate understanding of the problem. Hence, setting up strong
surveillance system should be priority of the administrator and the data
process should be scientific, up-to-date and sacrosanct,” he said.