It took the deaths of two children to rattle Delhi and wake it up to the fact that the threat of dengue deaths is indeed serious. What made those two deaths even worse was the fact that the patients were rejected by different hospitals before finally getting treatment.
This monsoon itself, there have been 11 deaths due to dengue in Delhi. The total number of reported cases over the years has now gone up to 2000. Surprisingly, it has only now spurred the government into action. Of course, no issue like this is devoid of a political angle, with AAP blaming the BJP, which runs the municipal corporation and the country. This is not about that. By passing the buck, the authorities are not taking responsibility for their actions. It would have been prudent, given the number of cases every year, to have an awareness campaign at the outset. Not only would the public have been able to take adequate precautions but the hospitals too would have been on guard. The apathy displayed by private hospitals, to literally shoo away the two children, on separate occasions, that died would not have been possible if all stakeholders were on red alert.
Government machinery is now working. All this would not have happened if reactions from all corners of Delhi hadn’t kickstarted it. But, the fact that Delhi had to wait this long to react begs one serious question. How low have we sunk, when hospitals deny healthcare to those who really need it?
