India: Dengue outbreak spreads to PM's family

(New York Times)
Updated: 2006-10-06 15:24

Fears over the intensity of an outbreak of dengue fever grew as three members of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's family were admitted to New Delhi's leading hospital with symptoms.

The outbreak of dengue, which is carried by mosquitoes, has killed 38 people and infected 2,900 others, the Health Ministry said. The prime minister¡¯s son-in-law and two grandsons, 11 and 17, responded well to treatment, a hospital spokesman said.

Meanwhile, the government ordered children to wear long-sleeved clothes to school and warned that fines would be imposed on anyone who failed to clean up puddles of water around their homes. ¡°The situation is being controlled,¡± said the health minister, Dr. Anbumani Ramadoss. ¡°There is no need to panic.¡±

At the prime minister¡¯s residence, teams of city workers armed with fumigators inched through the gardens spraying insecticide