WHO chastises India over dengue epidemic

Last week the Delhi High Court during its own suo moto motion against the Municipal Corporation of Delhi and the Central government chastised the government of India and the government of the Delhi state for ignoring warnings concerning dengue. These warnings were given by the World Health Organization (WHO) and experts at the meeting in Pune in 1994. The Court also chastised the governments criminal negligence which caused hundreds of deaths from the disease in 1996. The Court was alerted by mass media reports of the governments failure to deal with the spreading epidemic in the second half of 1996. 10252 patients were admitted to hospitals in Delhi; 423 patients died. Hospitals were ill equipped and blood banks were disorganized. There were no dengue control initiatives until 1997 when they were instituted by court order. The 10 major Delhi hospitals are now required to be fully equipped for any dengue outbreak and the Central and Delhi governments have been ordered to prepare dengue control programs at the national and state levels. Justices Bhandari and Kumar stated that the respondents must adhere to any further suggestions or warnings by WHO and that a similar blunder must not be repeated.