Dengue fever continues to spread unabated in Uttarakhand this season, with over 1,000 people affected by the vector-borne disease so far and six killed.



The deadly virus claimed its sixth victim at the Himalayan Hospital in Jollygrant a few days back. According to data released by the state Health Department on September 5, 1,024 people in the state have been detected with the disease, of which 712 are in Dehradun and 286 in Nainital.

Although the state claims total preparedness to fight the disease, the number of people affected is constantly on the rise. State Congress president Pritam Singh claimed that the state government was not taking adequate steps to prevent the spread of the disease. "Additional doctors are not being deployed at the lone government hospital in Dehradun to deal exclusively with dengue patients, not to speak of other government hospitals, where the conditions are worse," Singh said in a statement here. "Government hospitals all over the state suffer from acute shortage of medicines. Medical equipments are not working and the number of doctors is not in proportion to the number of dengue patients," he said.