How many has dengue killed? HC asks West Bengal govt

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KOLKATA: The Calcutta High Court on Friday asked the West bengal government to submit an affidavit by next week regarding the number of deaths that have taken place in the state due to dengue. The HC also asked the government to list out the measures taken to fight the disease.

The Mamata Banerjee government had on Thursday said that 38 people had died due to dengue and claimed that the media was sensationalising the issue by creating a situation "out of nothing".

Advocate General (AG) Kishore Dutta had submitted that 23 people had died of the vector-borne disease in the state-run hospitals and another 15 in private facilities since January.

Questioning the maintainability of the public interest litigation (PIL) petitions filed with regard to the alleged dengue outbreak in the state, the AG said the petitioners had relied on newspaper reports and not on any independent research.

"A situation has been created out of nothing. Dengue is nothing new, it occurs worldwide," Dutta said.

The AG said around 1.3 lakh people had been tested for dengue at government facilities in the state and of them, around 21,000 had been confirmed to be suffering from the disease.

The petitioners have alleged that the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) government in the state is hiding the actual figures of those affected by dengue.