Chikungunya outbreak in Dhaka

The health minister has finally spoken on the chikungunya outbreak that has affected large parts of the city for the last two months. According to a report published in this paper, people living in 23 areas of the city are highly prone to catch the disease.

Two things are apparent from the minister's statement. Firstly, he would like to assure us that the incidence of the disease has not taken an epidemic proportion. Secondly, he places the blame squarely on the two city corporations for their failure to eradicate the mosquito breeding grounds which is the major cause of the outbreak. 

It is futile to delve into semantics; the fact is that the disease has affected a large number of people, in the capital, and relevant agencies must bring to bear all coordinated resources to combat it, epidemic or not. We feel that it was his bounden duty as the health minister to have been more proactive in directing the DCCs in undertaking appropriate measures to combat the disease form the initial stages. In any case chikunguniya has affected us for the first time and the health ministry should have acted more promptly on its own to prevent its onset in the first place. 

As for the awareness programme, we feel that it has been at best perfunctory, and there should be more sustained multi-pronged effort in this regard. 

We feel that this kind of blame game does not help. In the eyes of citizens, both the city corporations and the minister for health should share the responsibility equally and, instead of playing the blame game, start acting in a coherent manner to stem the attack of this very debilitating illness.