At least nine people have died so far due to dengue outbreak in Delhi and National Capital Region, including a five-year-old child who was allegedly denied treatment in four hospitals before he succumbed to the mosquito-borne viral disease at Holy Family hospital.
The parents of the child, Aman, first admitted him to Jeevan Anmol Hospital, which referred him to another hospital due to lack of infrastructure. They then went to Safdarjung hospital, where the doctors allegedly told them that Aman does not have dengue, his father told NDTV.
The hospital told Aman's parents not to worry and asked them to take him home, NDTV reported.
However, Aman's condition deteriorated within a day and his parents took him to Batra and Max hospitals. Failing to get their son admitted to the either hospital due to lack of beds, they took him to Holy Family hospital, where he succumbed to dengue, ANI reported.
Doctors of Govt hospitals don't even talk properly,they said he's not going to die&he died the same day:Manoj Sharma pic.twitter.com/2ZxaDWoZ7v
— ANI (@ANI_news) September 15, 2015
In a similar incident, seven-year-old Avinash Rout died of dengue after five hospitals allegedly refused to admit him. His parents were finally able to get him admitted to Batra Hospital, but he could not be saved. In trauma, his parents committed suicide after Avinash died on 8 September.
Meanwhile, the Delhi government has ordered investigation into the death of Avinash. "We have ordered magisterial enquiry to probe the whole incident. The area district magistrate has been asked to scan the CCTV footages from the cameras installed near the five hospitals to establish the sequence of the events," Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Jain told PTI.
Delhi government on Saturday sent show cause notices to five hospitals – Moolchand, Max Saket, Saket City hospital, Akash hospital and Irene hospital – asking them to explain why their registration should not be cancelled for allegedly refusing to admit Rout, PTI reported.
Delhi government's health department had on 28 August issued advisory asking both government and private hospitals to not deny admission to dengue patients.
According to the municipal corporation's data from Sunday, a total of 1,872 cases of dengue has been reported in Delhi and parts of National Capital Region till 12 September. Of over 1800 cases, 613 patients have been tested positive with viral fever in the last one week.
Delhi is expected to witness a rise in the number of dengue cases in October.
"The disease normally peaks in the second and third week of October, so the numbers are going to go further up," Hindustan Times quoted additional professor at the department of virology, Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences, Dr Ekta Gupta as saying.
