Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain on Thursday said unlike dengue, chikungunya in itself does not cause death and it is a fact available on Google.
Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain on Thursday said unlike dengue, chikungunya in itself does not cause death and it is a fact available on Google. He said this is not his opinion even as the city continued to grapple with the vector borne disease that claimed at least 13 lives on the day. He said Union health minister J.P. Nadda supports his opinion in this regard. Mr Jain however, added he was “not competent” to ascertain the cause of the mounting fatalities.
Mr Jain said that people in Delhi need not panic and that all they needed to do is to take precautions and go to the hospital only if they experience symptoms of the vector borne disease. “People of Delhi have no need to panic. The state government is ready to provide help at all cost. But one should get admitted only if the doctor advises them to do so and not because they are scared,” he said.
Talking about the recent casualties, Mr Jain said that four of the five deaths had been reported from the same hospital, which made the situation quite suspicious. “Chikungunya deaths are not happening across the world. Why is it only in a select few Delhi hospitals And upon enquiry, I have discovered that most of the deaths are of people who were aged and already sick with other ailments,” the minister said.
Within hours of returning from Goa, where he was campaigning for AAP, Mr Jain on Tuesday had claimed that chikungunya can never be the cause of anyone’s death. He also denied there was any outbreak of the mosquito-borne disease in the city and it was all manufactured by the media.
