NEW DELHI: As WHO has called the Mpox outbreak in Africa a Global Health Emergency, Delhi Health Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj said on Friday that the city government was maintaining strict vigil and closely monitoring developments.
“We are closely monitoring the situation. We are keeping a close watch on the actions taken by both the central and (other) state governments,” Bharadwaj said in a presser.
Earlier this week, the Delhi government directed the LNJP Hospital, GTB Hospital and the Baba Saheb Ambedkar Hospital to set up isolation rooms to manage suspected and confirmed mpox cases while emphasising that no patients had been detected. The LNJP Hospital has been designated as the nodal facility, while the other two are on standby.
The disease, caused by a virus of the same family as smallpox, is transmitted through close skin-to-skin contact, sexual contact and very close interaction with the infected person. The disease is usually self-limiting and patients recover through proper treatment and supportive care. But in some cases, the infection turns fatal.
Meanwhile, Bharadwaj criticised Lt Governor VK Saxena for the delay in staffing new and existing hospitals.
While the Delhi government is working on expanding infrastructure, including constructing four new hospitals and enhancing facilities in 13 others, the failure to appoint doctors and paramedical staff has rendered these efforts incomplete, Bharadwaj said.
Reacting to Bharadwaj’s allegations, the Lieutenant Governor’s Secretariat accused him of “lying” and “misleading” on the issue. “The health department under him and his predecessors never ever created the said approximately 37,000 posts or wrote to or asked the
services department to make recruitment against them, despite having sanctioned the construction of hospitals way back in 2019,” it said.