New Delhi, October 4
Dengue has claimed its first victim--an eight-year-old boy- this season in the national Capital, but doctors maintain that there is nothing to panic as cases have not been serious this year.

The boy (name withheld), a resident of South Delhi, succumbed to the mosquito-borne infection due to dengue shock syndrome on Friday at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital. Doctors treating him said the deceased was admitted to hospital on September 29 with high fever.

"The child was a case of acute leukemia (blood cancer) and had developed dengue. Due to cancer he showed severe manifestations," said a senior paediatrician of pulmonary medicine at the hospital on condition of anonymity.

Advising people not to panic, he said, "One dengue death should not trigger panic as this time the cases have been less and non-serious. It is only in patients with associated diseases it becomes worrisome. Otherwise in 200 patients with dengue, one is hospitalised. I have seen two-three cases of dengue over the last one week."

Associated problem worsens the condition in case of the patients infected with the disease as the immunity of the body is compromised.

"He was diagnosed only a few weeks back. These patients are immune-compromised. They are prone to infections and any infection in them can prove fatal. Even this patient died to due to dengue shock syndrome," said the spokesperson of the hospital.

Dengue has not been much prevalent this year with 98 positive cases being reported in Delhi till September 27. In 2013, Delhi recorded 5,574 cases and six deaths.

New Delhi, October 4
Union Health Minister and Chandni Chowk MP Harsh Vardhan today urged the traders of Old Delhi to work together with the administration and civil society for giving the walled city a new look.

The minister called upon the community of traders, wholesalers and shopkeepers who form the majority in the area to adopt self-regulatory practices to achieve the national goal of cleanliness and public hygiene. The traders of Old Delhi on their part have resolved to implement a three-point action plan within three months.

As part of the plan, the schools of the area will be given support to build new toilets or modernise the existing ones, said Vijay Gupta, chairman of the Kirana Committee.

"A new game plan aligned to the Prime Minister's vision of 'Swachh Bharat' is the need of the hour. This place resonates with history and the culture of India. Foreign tourists come here in droves. But they return with memories of filthy streets and bad smells. This must change," he stressed during a programme organised by the Kirana Committee to mark the launch of a massive, public-private drive which is aimed at changing the image of Chandni Chowk from a shabby place to a spic and span model of modern Delhi.

The shop owners will be given baskets or dustbins to throw their refuse and they will be encouraged to employ sweepers to clean up the streets on which their establishments are operating, over and above the routine cleaning done by municipal sweepers. Finally, all inhabitants of the area will be given free information packages on preventive health.

A health camp is proposed to be organised on a regular basis in Royal Park which is located in the neighbourhood.

Dr Vardhan carried out symbolic cleaning of a stretch of Vivekananda Marg. Later, he requested the committee members to reset their target to Diwali by putting their cleaning-up operations on high gear immediately.

New Delhi, October 4
The Minister for State for Science and Technology, Dr Jitendra Singh, today urged medical practitioners to provide free insulin to those patients who belong to the weaker sections while pointing out that the high mortality rate for juvenile diabetic patients was mainly due to the inability of their parents to pay for the insulin for their lifelong treatment.

There is sometimes a tendency to ignore the fact that there are over 75,000 children with Type-1 juvenile diabetes in India who require lifelong insulin for survival, noted Dr Singh, himself a diabetologist, in his inaugural address at the Afro-Asian Conclave on Diabetes in Children, organised by Denmark-based Novo Nordisk Education Foundation.

The minister also said that oral insulin will be made available very soon. Currently, the insulin injection remains the only viable option in India.

He appealed to all medical practitioners to distribute free insulin to destitute diabetic children.

Referring to the Changing Diabetes in Children (CDiC) programme for the economically disadvantaged children, which was dedicated to the country by former President APJ Abdul Kalam, Dr Singh said that to strive for the care of destitute diabetic children was one way of serving the nation through the medical profession. He has made it a rule to provide free insulin to every destitute diabetic child who was insulin-dependent.

Further, experts at the 2nd edition of AACDiC also pointed out that not much has been done to address the growing paediatric endocrine illness while stressing the need for self-management for better outcomes in diabetic care among children.

Dr KM Prasanna Kumar, chairperson, Changing Diabetes in Children, Novo Nordisk Education Foundation India said, "Because of the sheer magnitude of Type 2 in adults, most continuing medical education (CME) programmes tend to concentrate on management issues related to this variety of diabetes mellitus. Other aspects of diabetology are often ignored including Type 1 among children.”

New Delhi, October 4
The Crime Branch of Delhi today claimed to have worked out a murder-cum-robbery case of Dwarka North in which a man was shot dead when he tried to stop a criminal who was snatching a bag of a motorcyclist.

The accused, Ashish Tomar, alias Ashu, was arrested today from Kapashera border, said a police officer.

The incident had occurred on September 23 when an employee of a courier company went to deposit money to a bank near Sulhakul Mandir on Old Palam Road. The accused had information about the movement of the employee. Two accused on a motorcycle had intercepted the employee as soon as he reached the temple. While the accused were snatching the bag in which the employee had kept the money, a passerby intervened. The accused shot the passerby dead and snatched the bag.

The police came to know that the accused allegedly involved in the case would come to meet someone at Kapashera border. A trap was laid and he was arrested. During interrogation the accused confessed to committing crime, the officer said.

Tomar said on September 22 his associates Sunny and Raju met him and planned to rob the victim. Following that, they arranged three pistols, 13 rounds, three mobile phones, one knife, one motor cycle and his car.

He said after committing the crime, they fled the spot and reassembled near District Centre, Janakpuri, where they parked the motorcycle and got in the vehicle of Ashish and went to Najafgarh Drain Road. They distributed the looted amount.