A total of 152 dengue deaths have been reported from the country this year and Maharashtra has topped the chart with 35 causalities, the government said today.
Union Health and Family Welfare minister Ghulam Nabi Azad told Rajya Sabha that a total of 67,365 dengue cases were reported till November this year and out of that 152 deaths were reported.
While 35 deaths were reported from Maharashtra, 24 dengue deaths took place in Kerela.
According to figures given to Rajya Sabha by the ministry, 285 deaths have been reported from Malaria this year till October out of the total 6,93,006 Malaria cases in various parts of the country.
Maharashtra also topped the list of maximum 58 deaths due to Malaria till October this year followed by Odisha with 55 malaria deaths.
There have also been 15,341 cases of Chikungunya reported from various parts of the country till November this year with Karnataka registering the maximum 4,994 cases.
Azad said that an action plan for dengue has been developed and sent to state governments for implementation.
"Advisories have been issued from time to time a different levels while field visits are being carried out by technical experts of National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme (NVBDCP)," he said.
"For augmenting diagnostic facilities, number of Sentinel Surveillance Hospitals (SSHs) with laboratory support has been increased to 347 across the country and linked to 14 Apex Referral laboratories with advanced diagnostic facilities for back up support,"Azad said.