RTI reveals 18 rabies deaths in Delhi over 3 years; Centre claims zero
Rabies
New Delhi: In a shocking revelation, at least 18 people have died from rabies in the city over the last three years, according to data obtained under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
The data, shared by Maharshi Valmiki Infectious Diseases (MVID) Hospital, Delhi’s only dedicated infectious disease facility under the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), shows that six people died in 2022, two in 2023, and ten in 2024.
These figures sharply contradict the Union government’s claim made in Parliament earlier this year. In a written reply to the Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying S.P. Singh Baghel had stated that no human rabies deaths were recorded in Delhi between January 2022 and January 2025.
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What stood out in the Parliament’s data was that while the central government reported “zero deaths” from rabies in Delhi between 2022 and 2025, it acknowledged a steady rise in animal bite cases in the capital from 6,691 in 2022 to 17,874 in 2023 and 25,210 in 2024.
The clear mismatch between central and local data has raised serious concerns over the coordination of health surveillance systems and the accuracy of disease reporting. The data gap not only points to alleged negligence in record-keeping but also shows how the lack of transparency may have prevented public awareness about the real situation.
The RTI revelation came as a shock to many experts, as rabies is a disease that is 100% preventable but almost always fatal once symptoms appear.
In Parliament, Minister Baghel had said that under the National Rabies Control Programme (NRCP), states and Union Territories upload monthly data on dog bites and rabies cases to the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) portal to enhance national monitoring. However, the RTI data suggests that local hospital records are not being fully captured by the national database.
While Baghel was unavailable for comments and did not respond to text messages, his additional PS, Himashu Sharma, told TOI, offhand, that they cannot comment on the issue of discrepancy in the data, if any, without seeking a proper response from the department.
