The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and the state health department held a joint press conference here on Tuesday. BBMP commissioner H Siddaiah said no case of dengue death had been reported thus far in the BBMP limits this year.

He said it was wrong to attribute any death to dengue. He said the deceased could have been diabetic or suffering from some other illness.

He said the Palike had sufficient manpower and equipments to undertake fogging or spraying to control mosquito population across the 198 wards of the BBMP.

According to the BBMP, this year 209 cases of dengue and 82 cases of chikungunya have been reported thus far, marking a decrease of 33 per cent and 89 per cent respectively over last year’s figures.

According to health department, 1,764 cases of dengue were reported in the state in 2009 as against 742 this year. While eight dengue deaths were recorded in 2009, this year there has been one casualty. Likewise, 588 cases of chikungunya have been recorded this year against 3,239 cases in 2009.

Notice to erring hospitals

Siddaiah said the BBMP had issued show-cause notices to three city-based hospitals for not reporting dengue deaths to the utility. The notices were issued on July 23 to Gayathri Hospital, Vijayanagar, Trimula Hospital, Kamakshipalya and St Johns’ Hospital, Koramangala.

“It is mandatory for all the private hospitals to report BBMP of the dengue deaths in their hospitals before announcing it publicly,” Siddaiah said.He reiterated that hospitals should send the blood samples to National Institute of Virology to test instead of any private lab.

High-risk areas

Siddaiah named localities in the city from where maximum number of dengue cases were reported. He said risk was high in Chamarajpet, Sarvagna Nagar, Shivajinagar, C V Raman Nagar and Mahadevapura.

H1N1 impact subsiding

Health secretary Ramana Reddy said the number of H1N1 cases had come down this year as compared with last year. He said 135 persons had died in the state due to H1N1 last year while this year the virus had claimed 49.