Measures to Control Dengue Cases

New Delhi, December 10, 2013: During 2013, till 30th November, a total of 67365 dengue cases have been reported throughout the country.

Dengue prevention and control is covered under National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme (NVBDCP).

An action plan for dengue has been developed and sent to the State Governments for implementation. Advisories have been issued from time to time to State Governments at different levels. Field visits are carried out by technical experts from NVBDCP Directorate to assess the preparedness at the field level and to provide technical guidance to the States. For augmenting diagnostic facilities, number of Sentinel Surveillance Hospitals (SSHs) with laboratory support has been increased to 347 across the country and linked with 14 Apex Referral laboratories with advanced diagnostic facilities for back up support. ELISA based IgM test kits are provided to SSHs through National Institute of Virology, Pune free of cost. Guidelines for clinical management of cases have also been sent to the States for circulation in all hospitals. States were also asked to develop contingency plan for hospitalization of dengue cases like identification of dedicated beds, alerting the blood banks in case of large numbers of cases.

This was stated by Ghulam Nabi Azad, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha today.