CHENNAI: AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami on Wednesday slammed the government over the rise in dengue cases and called for preventive measures on a war footing to contain the spread.
Citing data released by the health department, he said 17,348 people have been confirmed to have contracted dengue in Tamil Nadu as of September 21, while 4,653 people have been affected by scrub typhus. In response, Health Minister KG Arunraj said 23,294 dengue cases and 65 deaths were reported in 2017, when Palaniswami was the CM, and accused the then AIADMK government of referring to dengue as “mysterious fever”.
Arunraj said this year, 131 testing centres conducted 2.23 lakh tests, enabling early detection and treatment. He also said adequate medicines and platelet stocks are available.