464 dengue cases, Delhi Mayor orders stringent action (Lead)

As the national capital Thursday recorded 26 new cases of dengue, taking the total number of cases of the vector-borne disease to 464, Delhi Mayor Kanwar Sain ordered health officers to take stringent action to stop the spread of the disease.

"There were 26 fresh cases of dengue confirmed today (Thursday). This takes the total number of cases to 464," Chief Medical Officer, Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) N.K. Yadav said.

Confirming the figure, Sain said: "Of the 464 dengue cases that have been reported from Delhi, 380 cases are from the Municipal Corporation of Delhi's jurisdiction."

At a meeting to review the situation and measures taken to check the spread of dengue, Sain released a pamphlet containing information to educate the citizens to check the breeding of mosquito responsible for spread of the disease.

"These will be distributed to citizens on the coming Saturday and Sunday after which if breeding is found in the premises, they will be challaned (penalised) straight away as per the provisions of the DMC Act," Sain said.

Sain added that all the 12 municipal zones have been given fogging machines.

"These will do rounds in the morning and evening as per the routes decided in consultation with elected representatives and residents welfare associations for effective control over the spread of dengue," he said.

At the meeting, Yadav said that till Oct 31, MCD's domestic breeding checkers had visited 22,074,365 houses and breeding was found in 44,107 houses.

"Legal notices were issued to 45,168 persons and prosecution action was initiated against 4,963 persons," Yadav said.

Until now, there have been two deaths caused by the disease - one of a 15-year-old boy and the other of a nine-year-old boy.

Last updated on Nov 5^th, 2009 at 19:56 pm IST--IANS