While it’s not news that Mumbai is not the healthiest city in the country, we seem to be familiar with just the tip of the iceberg. Recent reports have claimed that the city’s health condition is ‘critical’ with a steep rise in cases of dengue and malaria.
According to a survey conducted by Mumbai based Praja Foundation and reported by The Indian Express, incidences of nine sensitive diseases have doubled in the past four years.
There has been a rise of 71 percent in cases of malaria.
The report says that the incidence of dengue rose by almost 176 percent since 2008-09. Malaria, reportedly, has gone up by 71 percent in the city.
A Times of India report says that official data collected from civic hospitals show that enteric diseases like cholera too have rises by 85 percent in the city. “While experts are surprised by the cholera cases, BMC officials admit that it has been kept under wraps as its mere occurrence could attract international travel sanctions,” the TOI report says.
Like both the reports conclude, this might just be a trailer to the real picture given that the 15,000 people covered in the survey mostly visited government hospitals. More than half the city, which turns to private clinics and hospital have not been surveyed. The rise in these diseases might just go up if a study is conducted on them.
