Dengue outbreak will peak around first week of October: WHO

There might be more worries in store for the government with the World Health Organisation today saying that the dengue outbreak will peak around the first week of October.

Speaking at a joint press conference with health secretary Sujatha Rao, WHO coordinator for communicable diseases in South East Asia, Chusak Prasittisuk said the Indian government has done a good job in controlling the outbreak.

"The peak may be in early October," he said. Prasittisuk asked the citizens to help in controlling the outbreak by checking breeding of mosquitoes.

He said usually the dengue season starts around July and the peak was during September-October. Prasittisuk, however, added that dengue was not unique to India and countries like Indonesia and Sri Lanka have also reported a huge number of cases this year.

Indonesia has reported more than 80,000 cases this year while Thailand has nearly 57,000 cases. The total number of cases in India are 6,885.

Health secretary Rao said most of the countries which have issued advisories against travelling to India also have cases of dengue in their countries. 

She said the dengue situation in the country was under control and reiterated that the strain this year was least fatal with a mortality ratio of 150:1. 

Secretary, department of biotechnology, MK Bhan said the government has decided to issue security passes to all people
who want to work inside the Commonwealth games venue, including labourers and MCD employees.