The Times of India     27.08.2014   

The big scare: BBMP's dengue panel hardly met

BANGALORE: The city may be in the grip of dengue fear with scores of cases having been reported, but the BBMP committee tasked with vetting causes of each fatality and follow-up action has hardly worked since 2013.

In fact, there are doubts as to whether the dengue death review committee was constituted last year, and if yes, who its members were.

Dr Manoranjan Hegde, chief nodal officer of BBMP's mosquito control programme admitted to TOI that the committee never met last year but did not explain the reasons.

According to guidelines issued by the government of India, each district must have a dengue testing lab and a dengue death audit committee.

The committee has to find the cause of every dengue death and zero in on the larvae sites that were the reason for the victim getting the disease.

Besides, the committee has to take up larvae source reduction drive and create awareness among the public about dengue control and hygienic surroundings.

According to the National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme, there were only 12 death deaths in Karnataka last year, while the number of positive cases stood at 6,208. Doctors, however, say the cases are under reported.

Dr Prakash Kumar B G, joint director of the National Vector-borne Disease Control Programme, Directorate of Mosquito Control, department of health and family welfare, said the BBMP had conducted a dengue death review meeting in March 2014. "A death audit was conducted in the meeting," he said refusing to give any details. No preventive measure: Cardiologist Dr Ramana Rao said BBMP has been showing lethargy and inactivity in handling dengue cases, and its prevention. "A meeting alone would not have done much, but that should have been a major step to prevent dengue," he pointed out.

Referring to number of dengue cases, he said, "It looks like the virus has undergone a mutation and it is less threatening this year due to strains having become weaker. It is seen in the symptoms and thus dengue, in most instances, is not turning out to be fatal like it was last year." Slamming the civic body's apathy, Dr Rao said, "It is sad to see that the BBMP is doing nothing about mosquito control, eliminating places of mosquito breeding and towards uncollected garbage," said Dr Rao. It's shocking that the dengue death review committee did not meet even once last year. The lack of transparency and reluctance to share information about the panel only makes matters worse.

It's high time civic authorities woke up to the deadly disease and took steps to not only prevent it, but also to review deaths caused by it to stop its spread.