Viral cases: South Delhi and Faridabad most affected

New Delhi:  It is very difficult to control growth of any epidemic as it can only be judged as an epidemic when it reaches its full potential.  Which is why most administration particularly in the health area track cases on active base so that they can respond before any disease reaches an epidemic proportion. Yesterday, an health minister talked about the rise of Dengue and Chikanguniya as a creation of the media. He blamed the media for creating an environment of fear. He also commented on the issue tha death cannot be caused by Chikanguniya.  It is difficult to forecast or predict whether Chikanguniya or Dengue has reached epidemic proportion in the Delhi and nearby suburbs of Faridabad, Noida and Gurgaon. LocalCircles a citizen engagement did a quick poll on the issue. The objective was to find the extent of the problem that Delhi citizens are suffering from.  The participation in the poll was very high due to the sensitivity of the issue, 33,954 people weighed in with their opinion in the poll. A simple question was asked that has anyone in your family or friends suffered from Chikunguniya/Dengue/viral in the last one month ? An overwhelming 68 per cent of the people in Delhi/NCR area said yes to this question. This does not mean that 67 % people in Delhi suffered from this disease, so please note that is not the case. Extrapolating it to mean 67 % people in Delhi suffer from this disease would mean it is an epidemic, which we are not stating or claiming in this survey. We are trying to depict the situation on the ground that  there is a disease which is rampant and 67% people in a sample of almost 34,000 people have experiences it in their family or friends. Doctors claim that besides Chikanguniya and Dengue there is strain of virus which shows all the symptoms of Chikunguniya or Dengue. The symptom is affecting appettite and joints of the patients. The hospital and doctors do not have any cure for this  viral infection . The data from the survey also shows that the South of Delhi and Faridabad a suburb of Delhi in Haryana is more affected.  85 % of the 6172 people polled in the city of Faridabad claimed that they have experienced it in their family or friends.  Gurgaon on the other hand had a much lower incidence of this problem with just 57 % of 6519 people polled saying that they have experiences this disease among family or friends. Clearly there is a health problem at hand and it needs to be tackled by making the health establishments in the city of Delhi, Faridabad, Noida and Gurgaon ready for it. Citizens have pointed out the lack of fogging in their areas to remove mosquitoes as it seems to be vector borne disease.  Blood tests are also being overcharged by labs and small nursing homes preying on the poor suffering from this disease. Seasonal Disease Management – Issues 1.Fogging is only when an epidemic breaks out and that too only in few places 2.Fogging is done blindly without taking measures to identify the place of breeding or to eliminate breeding 3.There is no way for the citizens to request a second round of defogging 4.Municipality fogging trucks and automatic sewer machines have not been seen in action this year 5.Government hospitals do not handle cases of dengue well 6.Patients are asked to buy the medicines themselves from outside 7.Availability of doctors to manage cases of dengue and Chikangunia becomes an issue 8.Patients with high fever are made to wait for hours in Government hospitals before a doctor comes to see them 9.Blood tests for Dengue are quite expensive 10.Open drains are not cleaned and have become breeding ground for the vectors 11.Vacant as well as construction sites are major grounds for mosquito breeding and not much is being done by the municipality to get rid of them