Dengue: Authorities to inspect four hospitals including AIIMS

New Delhi: With dengue mosquitoes found breeding on the premises of various hospitals here, a team of authorities will inspect the four central government hospitals including AIIMS tomorrow to assess the situation and take remedial measures to check spread of the disease.

The four hospitals are AIIMS, Lady Hardinge Medical College (LHMC), Safdarjung Hospital and RML hospital.

"It was decided that a joint inspection of premises by the hospital authorities, the concerned maintenance agency and representatives of National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme (NVBDCP) will be undertaken on August 22 to assess the situation and take remedial measures," an official statement of the Health Ministry said.

Additional secretary of Union Health Ministry Arun Panda today held a review meeting to assess the preparedness for dengue where it was also decided that a training programme of sanitary and health inspectors of these hospitals will be held on August 26 at the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) to upgrade their skills.

During the meeting, it was also decided that guidelines prepared under NVBDCP for prevention of dengue for the health care workers, public and others will be uploaded on the Health Ministry website for creating awareness on Dengue.

The matter of reported mosquito breeding in some areas within the premises of some of these hospitals was reviewed during the meeting along with the measures taken to address it.

It is worth a mention here that New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) has issued challans to four hospitals, including AIIMS and Safdarjung, various government offices and a school in the city recently after dengue mosquitoes were found breeding on their premises.

"We also reviewed the issue of the challans issued by NDMC. We found all challans except one were of cases during April to June. Only one - LHMC - was found to be of August. Large scale construction is going on there. That is why we thought that let there be a joint inspection so that they (authorities) know what is to be done," Panda later told PTI.

During the meeting, the hospital authorities informed that they have adequate number of testing kits such as NS1 and IgM Kits to detect cases of Dengue.