Vector-borne diseases in the time of Covid could make things worse: Medical experts

New Delhi: Medical experts have raised concerns about vector-borne diseases like Dengue and Malaria, saying that these combined with COVID-19 would create a catastrophic situation and might aggravate the city's public health crisis.

With Delhi witnessing heavy rainfall in the last couple of days, concerns for mosquito breeding in several parts have been raised. In fact, the

South Delhi Municipal Corporation itself has identified around 100 properties in its jurisdiction which are breeding grounds for disease-carrying mosquitoes.

Speaking to Millennium Post, Dr Pankaj Solanki, Member Governing Body at Delhi Medical Council said, "The situation may not get any better and we are yet to see the Dengue and Malaria outbreak. The civic authorities or the Delhi government have been occupied with COVID and had no time to work on these issues."

He added that the rain has also picked up this time and if Dengue mixes with COVID, it is going to create unthinkable damage. "Imagine the platelet counts are less in a patient and if they also have COVID, it is going to add insult to the injury," he said.

In a data shared by three municipal corporations this year, domestic house checkers have visited only 62 lakh homes till June 20. This, according to data, is a drop of about 56 per cent compared to last year. In 2019, domestic breeding checkers had visited 1.43 crore houses by June 22.

Meanwhile, the number of houses sprayed with insecticides has also dropped from nearly 3.12 lakh last year to 2.26 lakh this year. Similarly, the number of legal notices issued over mosquito breeding conditions from January to July 2019 was 38,294. This has come down to 11,942 until July 11 this year.

Officials, however, insist that they have ramped up work on checking breeding and have deployed teams in different areas. According to medical experts, Dengue and Malaria are not generally deadly, however, serious cases require hospitalisation. Till November in 2019, Delhi witnessed 4,155 Dengue cases but no deaths, while in Malaria; no death has been reported in the national Capital since 2015.