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Friday, September 16, 2016

The WHO called for strengthening India’s disease surveillance network by engaging private healthcare sector more for reliable counts of cases of dengue and chikungunya, which have claimed over 80 lives and affected more than 50,000 people across the country. Terming engagement with private healthcare sector as “critical”, WHO said that even probable dengue cases during outbreaks need to be reported to get more effective estimates while noting that strong surveillance, vector control, early diagnosis and case management and public awareness are key to control these vector-borne diseases.

The World Health Organisation said that in recent years, globalisation of travel and trade, unplanned urbanisation and environmental challenges including climate change has had a “significant” impact on transmission of vector-borne diseases.

“Surveillance for dengue and chikungunya in India presently captures only those patients that are laboratory confirmed at government identified sentinel hospitals, most of these are in the public sector.

“Given that substantial population visits the private sector for seeking health care in India, it is important that information from private hospitals and facilities is captured and well-represented for better understanding and estimation of the national disease burden of these infections,” said Henk Bekedam, WHO Representative to India.