Community participation essential to check dengue: Nadda

"Community efforts in right direction can minimise the disease burden in the country. Simple measures can be taken for keeping the surroundings clean and free of mosquitoes.

Success of the dengue control programme is related to community participation and ownership," he said.

Reaffirming the commitment of Prime Minister Narendra Modi towards making India clean, Nadda said amongst the various strategies which need to be put in place for this problem, the main focus should be on controlling the vector itself.

"For this purpose, cleanliness is the most important thing. It is the responsibility of all of us and within our communities to insist that we don't create an environment for the dengue to breed," Nadda added.

Director of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Dr Soumya Swaminathan said at the event a national-level survey would be conducted to assess dengue prevalence.

The decision for conducting the survey comes in the wake of a government's apex body rejecting introduction of the dengue vaccine stating there was not enough evidence to prove its efficacy in the Indian context.

"We do not have enough India-specific data to understand the anti-body rate within the community," she said.