Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare, J P Nadda has directed the officials of the Health Ministry to develop a mechanism to address the patients’ detail at the central level, which will help to remove the discrepancies in data of dengue cases and other related information. He said as the data currently generated by the national programme and the state government are highly variable, there is a need for a pragmatic system to collect accurate data. Data quality also needs to be monitored and assessed periodically, he stressed. The Minister stated this in the high level meeting chaired by him yesterday to review the Dengue situation and the measures taken to address it.
The Minister emphasized that there should be no laxity in the ongoing activities being undertaken. There should be availability of designated beds for dengue, blood products including platelets and no refusal of admission. Lessons learnt should be incorporated in adopting measures to tackle the situation. Day to day monitoring should be continued, he said. He urged the Delhi Government to engage Residential Welfare Associations (RWAs) and volunteers to spread awareness about the Dengue situation.
The Health Ministry is constantly and closely reviewing and monitoring the situation with the State Government, Municipal Bodies, NDMC, Delhi Cantonment Board, CPWD, MS of Central Government hospitals in Delhi and the National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme (NVBDCP), the nodal agency for prevention and control of dengue. It may be recalled that preparatory activities for creating awareness and preventing Dengue had started since the beginning of February this year.In addition, the states were supported to prepare for preventing and treating Dengue cases by organizing meetings, sensitization workshops, meeting with public representatives including Mayors, Corporators at the level of the Union Health and Family Welfare Minister, Union Health Secretary, and the Director General of Health Services.
The Ministry has also undertaken intensive targeted multi-media IEC activities to create mass awareness among the communities for prevention and control of Dengue. Also present at the meeting were, Dr. Jagdish Prasad, DGHS, Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, Secretary (DHR) and DG, ICMR, Shri K B Agarwal, Additional Secretary, senior officers of the Health Ministry, officials of the National Vector-Borne Disease Control Programme (NVBDCP), officials of the central government hospitals in Delhi, officials of the Delhi Government and Municipal Corporations of Delhi.