CHENNAI: After a 66-year-old Mugalivakkam resident who had tested positive for dengue died on September 17, his family claimed that no health officials visited their home or surveyed the neighbourhood for fever cases and mosquito-breeding sources. Similar complaints from families of dengue patients elsewhere in Chennai have raised questions as to whether cases reported are being followed up by field staff.
“My father was diagnosed with dengue haemorrhagic fever, and his death was sudden. Till today, nobody from the health department or the Chennai Corporation has checked on us. No preventive measures were taken in our area,” said K Sandhya, the daughter of the Mugalivakkam resident who had died at a private hospital on Greams Road.
Sandhya pointed out that several people in the neighbourhood had flu-like symptoms and feared that the situation could worsen during the rains. “If officials continue this, there will be more dengue deaths,” she said.
Similarly, a Triplicane resident said his seven-year-old son was admitted to Kanchi Kamakoti Childs Trust Hospital after testing positive for dengue, but no health worker visited their house or surveyed the neighbourhood since.
As dengue is a notifiable disease, every government and private hospital is required to report cases to the health department so that surveillance and mosquito-control measures can be initiated. According to former public health director Dr K Kolandaswamy, field-level health workers were duty-bound to visit areas from where dengue cases were reported.
He pointed out that health inspectors in rural areas and sanitary inspectors in corporation limits must check for other fever cases and organise a medical camp if a cluster is detected. Teams must also identify mosquito-breeding sources, eliminate stagnant water, chlorinate water where necessary and undertake fever surveillance to detect active cases. “If these activities are not carried out, controlling the spread will become difficult,” he added.
“Medical officers, the city health officer, assistant health officers and regional health officers were responsible for monitoring these measures. They must ascertain why field staff failed to visit an affected locality and whether government and private hospitals were reporting every dengue case without delay,” he said.
While health sources raised concern over some hospitals failing to notify dengue cases, they said it was more worrisome that even the reported cases were not always followed up with field surveillance. Such lapses could occur when multiple cases were reported in an area without sufficient field staff to conduct surveillance, they said.
According to data from DPH, Tamil Nadu reported 56,863 dengue cases and 12 deaths in 2023, followed by 46,971 cases and 13 deaths in 2024 and 25,585 cases and 12 deaths in 2025. As of September 19 this year, the state had recorded 17,049 cases and nine deaths.