By Ashish Srivastava

(Repeating with changes in dateline)

New Delhi, Oct 31 (UNI): Hospitals in the national capital have been directed to report the cases of dengue and malaria as Delhi Government enlisted vector-borne illnesses as notifiable diseases under Epidemic Disease Act, according to a couple of orders accessed by UNI.

However, the direction is to be specifically complied by hospitals having more than 50 beds. The non-compliance will also attract action from the government.

The move has come amid the severe outbreak of the vector-borne disease in the national capital wherein the city government has said every one out of four cases of fever is testing positive for dengue.

According to the weekly report released by civic bodies, Delhi has reported over 1,000 cases of dengue this year, with more than 280 cases logged in the last week.

The order copy by Delhi Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) read: “Therefore, keepers of all nursing homes having bed capacity of 50 beds or more are directed to fill a daily 24 hours report (including NIL report) in the Google Sheet provided by this Directorate latest by 10.00 am every morning failing which it would be considered a violation of Clause 14.1 of the Schedule appended to Rule 14 of Delhi Nursing Homes Registration (Amendment) Rules, 2011 and action, as deemed fit, would be initiated against the defaulters.”

The hospitals have been asked to classify their details into four subheads of cases in OPD, suspected cases, confirmed cases and beds available for fever cases.

The subheads would be further broken down each into cases from and outside of Delhi.

The hospitals will have to log the entries directed to them through a Google sheet provided by the DGHS.

Meanwhile, the order to make vector-borne diseases notifiable was issued on October 14, however, its implementation started only on Saturday.

The data provided by the hospitals will be used to spot the regions where the diseases are spreading classify them under ‘infected’ and ‘threatened’ to initiate outbreak control measures, according to October 14 notification.

Prior to notification, the authority to track and manage the vector-borne diseases rested with Delhi municipal corporations only.

The notification now makes provision for appointing a regulating officer who will be charged to coordinate between the local bodies, the Centre and implement the National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme.

According to the notification, the officer will also ensure that all healthcare institutes in the affected area report the cases, test the suspected cases, carry out surveys and take preventive measures to control the disease spread.

UNI ASH RNJ