Delhi lost the window of opportunity to avoid an outbreak because of a governance deficit; first because the state was in election mode and then because of the AAP’s internal squabbles.

• Dengue, a vector-borne disease, thrives in tropical climates, making its elimination impossible.

• A health system based on strong primary care would have meant that, irrespective of the quality of political leadership, health workers would have visited mohallas, educated people on the risks of dengue outbreaks, identified potential mosquito breeding grounds and worked with households and communities to ensure implementation of public health measures to prevent the Aedes mosquito from establishing itself.

• As per Schedule VII of the Constitution, infectious disease control is a concurrent responsibility, making the Centre equally liable for outbreaks of infectious diseases.

• Health actions that need to be taken in infectious-disease control programmes be it for dengue, Sars, H1N1, avian flu, TB, HIV or ebola must be governed by a public health act that makes individual functionaries/ households accountable, and dereliction of duty punishable, as it is in Singapore, for example.

Here are some other news items:^{credits to u-sr33}

• Sunday Story: Social, religious tensions haunting Mangalore’s youth

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