“Ten weeks, at 10 o’clock, for 10 minutes, check for mosquito breeding in your homes and your surroundings to prevent diseases such as dengue and chikungunya,” Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Wednesday while launching a citizen’s campaign to control mosquito breeding.
Under the campaign, which will start from September 1, the government will seek help from Delhi residents, resident welfare organisations, ministers and government officials and school children to control the breeding of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes.
Dengue causes high fever, headache, muscle, and joint pains and internal bleeding, leading to circulatory shock in severe cases. Chikungunya causes fever and joint pain that can last for months.
The Aedes aegypti, which transmits diseases such as dengue and chikungunya that have become endemic to Delhi, breeds in clean stagnant water. The life cycle of the mosquito is about eight to 10 days.

नर्म हिंदुत्व से इतर मोदी आलोचकों की तीन ग़लतियां
“If you look at data for the last four years, there has been an 80% reduction in the number of dengue cases. In 2015, when the AAP government came to power, 15,867 cases and 60 deaths had been reported. In 2018, 2,798 cases and four deaths had been reported. We want this trend to continue and the number of cases to remain low. For this, we will need the help of Delhiites and so we are launching this campaign,” Kejriwal said.
On a national level, he said the number of dengue cases had gone up by 300% between 2009 and 2017. “The total number of cases recorded in the country went up from around 60,000 cases in 2009 to 1,88,401 in 2017,” said Kejriwal quoting data from the National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme.
This is, however, not a linear trend and the number of cases has fluctuated over the years. In 2015, when there was an outbreak in Delhi, the number of cases recorded in the country was 99,913. This year, only 5,504 cases had been recorded till May 26, according to NVBDCP data.
To control the spread of the disease and provide timely treatment, the government opened about 500 fever clinics in its hospitals, dispensaries and mohalla clinics. The private hospitals were given permission to increase their bed strength by 20% during the season only for fever patients.
“A dengue control cell was created to coordinate the efforts of government and civic bodies. Massive awareness drives were conducted by the cell. This is the reason the numbers have been controlled now,” said Kejriwal.
“We cannot compare the numbers like this. There are several factors that influence the number of cases in a given region. The number of cases shoot up in September and October after the monsoons. When it comes to dengue, there are four strains and some strains cause more complications than the others. Also, if the same strain circulates year after year, the population would gain immunity and the number of infections would be less,” said Dr Charu Hans, former head of microbiology at Dr Ram Manohar Lohia hospital.
The monsoons, which led to an increase in the population of mosquitoes by providing breeding grounds, were delayed this year in Delhi by about a week and there is a deficit of 29% even now.