Does a city running on compressed natural gas and sycophancy require mosquitoes to play the great leveller? Perhaps not. But the vulnerability of the prime minister’s near relatives to the dengue scourge in New Delhi has communicated a message more pithily than that of the medical staff of one of the country’s largest hospitals. That is, given a chance, the disease does not discriminate among its victims. In unclean surroundings, the elite are as susceptible to it as are the faceless minions who are now increasingly clogging hospital corridors, in the city and outside it. The civic authorities and the health ministry, however, are mightily inconvenienced by this happenstance. Despite the prime minister’s fear of publicity, attention will be more sharply drawn than ever to the administration’s consistent failure to deal with a disease that has become an annual occurrence in the capital, and now, more frighteningly, in other parts of the country where it is endemic. Efforts are already on to see that hackles are not raised. Never mind the incidence — 448 confirmed cases and 14 deaths in New Delhi — the health ministry and the city administration are doing their bit to stay away from declaring the outbreak as an “epidemic”, which would have bestowed on them the responsibility of combating the menace on a war footing. But the situation is being accorded enough gravity to minimize any possible political fallout. Emergency meetings have been held, health officials put on door-to-door campaigns, and a notice has been served on the All India Institute of Medical Sciences to nail those responsible for the outbreak within the hospital premises.

Dengue in New Delhi may still be some distance away from assuming epidemic proportions and it may even be deemed unwise to get caught up in jargon at this stage. But can the authorities escape the blame for their tardy response to a situation that needs prompt action? Mosquito-borne diseases are on the rise in most Indian cities experiencing reckless growth. A regulated effort at creating greater public awareness, monitoring and controlling vector-growth and the spread of the disease is urgently needed. This should hold true not only for the metropolises, but also for the suburban and rural areas where such diseases are showing a rise in incidence. Unless that is done, the situation may soon go truly out of control throughout the country.