NEW DELHI: The Centre on Tuesday went on a mission mode to tackle the chikungunya and dengue outbreaks across the country even as Union Health Minister J P Nadda asked states to cooperate with each other to deal with the situation and not indulge in a blame game.
“Whether it is dengue or chikungunya, we should not panic. There is a need to give symptomatic treatment...We are ready to offer all help to state governments. This is not an issue for the Centre and states to indulge in blame game. We should work together,” he said.The Union Health Ministry has issued 11 advisories to states and held 16 review meetings with them, five of them chaired by Nadda, a senior health ministry official said. In addition, Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha has called a high-level meeting on Wednesday to formulate a strategy to deal with the outbreaks.
Dengue and chikungunya together have affected about 40,000 people in the country, and 60 have died due to dengue across the country. In Delhi alone, six have succumbed to chikungunya and nine to dengue this year. Around 12,255 chinkungunya cases have been reported across the country till August 31 with Karnataka recording 8,941 cases. While West Bengal has reported 5,129 dengue cases and 22 deaths, the disease has affected 5,183 people and claimed nine lives in Odisha.