Thaindian News

New Delhi, March 21 (IANS) The national capital’s first case of dengue of the year has been reported from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), and the country’s premier medical institute has been blamed by the civic corporation for failing to keep a mosquito-free campus.

According to a civic official Monday, a doctor at the institute has tested positive for dengue, becoming the first case of the vector-borne disease in Delhi this year.

Anoop Singh, a post-graduate student of the AIIMS, tested positive for dengue after he was admitted in the hospital March 3 when he complained of fever along with headache and pain.

“The student contracted the disease during his stay in the doctors’ hostel in the AIIMS. It is surprising that mostly the first and the last dengue cases of the city are reported from AIIMS,” chairman of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi’s (MCD) public health committee V.K. Monga Monday told IANS.

“MCD’s public health committee had continuously asked the AIIMS authorities to prevent the disease by keeping their surroundings free from mosquitoes, but in vain,” he added.

“It is unusual that the first case of dengue is being reported with the early onset of summer. Last year, the first dengue case was reported in June, and cases continued till mid-December,” he said.

Monga also asked the public to ensure that places like water coolers and tanks did not have stagnant water - the breeding ground of mosquitoes.

He added that the MCD was conducting anti-dengue workshops in schools and hospitals in the city.

In 2010, a total of 6,229 dengue cases were reported in Delhi, and the disease claimed eight lives.