It’s certainly in our interest that people who land in India don’t fall sick or take the virus back to their countries.

Looks like it is time that travellers to India are issued a warning against dengue in view of the epidemic that is sweeping its cities.

Dengue is now symptomatic of the public health threat that a visitor faces in India. It’s as lethal as the threat of terrorism in Pakistan.

The numbers are indeed swelling, although the reported cases can be grossly underestimated because majority of the infected people are likely to be undiagnosed. International public health experts say the actual figures can run into several millions.

According to the National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme (NVBDCP) statistics, the numbers have reached an all-time high. Except Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Sikkim, all the states have reported the disease.

Contrast it with 2007, when at least 13 states had no reported cases.

According to NVBDCP, the highest number is in Tamil Nadu - 8,482, which is at least 300% higher than its record high in 2011; followed by West Bengal with 5688 cases, a rise of 500% compared to its previous highest of 1038 cases in 2008.

Delhi, with 1211 cases, is still lower than its previous record; but its 2010 figure of 6,259 that brought international disrepute should warn the national capital that it can still get out of control.

Overall this year, the country has so far reported 32,263 cases, which is the highest in its history. The earlier record was 28,292 in 2010, when Delhi was the epicentre of the epidemic. Tamil Nadu, then had only 2000-odd cases.

Experts feel that these figures are only the tip of the problem and the actual numbers must be several times higher. The New York Times in an article quoted Dr. Scott Halstead, a dengue research specialist, who estimates that the actual numbers could be as high as 37 million! In the same report, Dr. Harold S. Margolis, chief of the dengue branch at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, called the Indian figures a “joke”.

This is the language that should shame the Indian authorities, who are constantly trying to cover up, and run away from their responsibilities while people fall sick and die like flies.

Despite the callous denials by politicians, like West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the world now knows how dangerous the situation in India is. Therefore, it’s certainly time that we warned people visiting the country about the possible risk of them contracting the bone-breaking disease that can can ground them for at least a couple of weeks, and in rare cases (1%), even kill them.

It’s certainly in our interest that people who land in India don’t fall sick or take the virus back to their countries. Reports of dengue-virus carried back to their home countries by international travellers is rapidly rising.

Disease-warnings and WHO’s International Certificate of Vaccination have been mandatory for travel clearance to several countries, particularly in Africa and Latin America for the risk of illnesses such as yellow fever and cholera. If India doesn’t change its irresponsible ways of addressing this public health emergency, the WHO should name dengue and India in its list.

Although not specific to India, the CDC has already issued a travel notice on dengue.

Yellow fever, which has a mortality of about 3%, can be prevented by vaccination, but for dengue, there is no safeguard, except precautions against mosquito-bites or avoidance of endemic areas. In a world of informed-decisions, travellers must have the right information to decide whether to go to the endemic pockets or not.

Responsible countries should take a hardline stand on this, the way Britain did in 2010 by warning its citizens about the dengue outbreak in Delhi, because our governments and civic authorities are so lackadaisical and shameless.

They do know that mosquito control is the only solution, still they fail. The burgeoning household mosquito-repellant industry shows that our authorities have more or less withdrawn from their responsibility. According to some reports, mosquito repellants account for about 80% of India’s Rs 2400 crore insecticide market. Such a shame that all of this is paid by the people themselves.

If the central, state and municipal governments don’t pull up their socks, it’s only a matter of time before some countries start issuing travel advisories against India on health-grounds. Some reports in the western media in fact are veritable dengue-warnings to travellers to India.

“India has become the focal point for a mosquito-borne plague that is sweeping the globe,” said the New York Times in its article on the spread of dengue in India.

“An epidemic of dengue fever in India is fostering a growing sense of alarm even as government officials here have publicly refused to acknowledge the scope of a problem that experts say is threatening hundreds of millions of people, not just in India but around the world,” it further said.

Dramatic depiction and strong words indeed. Can brand India get a stigma worse than this?

The dengue epidemic is a symptom of India’s pathetic public health standards and the government’s irresponsibility to its people. It’s now an accepted knowledge that poor health is a result of socio-economic determinants that also make India tragically poor, dirty and crumbling. Even two days ago Manmohan Singh spoke about the social determinants of health. But do his cabinet colleagues know anything about it?

Ultimately, the aggregate growth figures and specks of glass and steal cannot hide the underlying factors that breed life-threatening diseases. They will ultimately undo the patches of gloss of “growth” and shame the country.

Dengue is just one of them.

Beware India. Cutting down on social expenditure will not reduce the fiscal deficit, it will ultimately consume it. The planning commission will never tell you that, but the citizens will.