Experts have said the late and sporadic rain which the country experienced this year helped the breeding of the Aedes mosquito, the deadly carrier of the disease. There may be truth in the observation, but it is equally true that the DCC's much-vaunted anti-mosquito drive evidently ended with very little being done to eradicate the menace.

The preparedness to face the danger is missing. The patients are reported to have taken drugs that are extremely harmful to them. And hospitals also do not appear to be ready to handle the sudden turn of events -- the unexpected arrival of a large number of dengue patients.

When the disease did not break out in July, the usual time for it, a kind of complacency set in among people that it might not return.

Now the reality is that dengue has staged a comeback. Though no fatality has been reported so far, the reports say some of the patients are suffering from the life-threatening type of the disease, the symptoms of which include unbearable pain and bleeding.

The doctors have pointed out time and again that there is no reason to be panicked, since the self-limiting disease usually subsides if the patient is kept under proper medical care for about a week. But the deaths that occurred in the last few years showed what could happen in the absence of appropriate medical intervention.

There was also a palpable failure in controlling the disease. Its latest outbreak has only confirmed that the progress made in destroying mosquitoes has been very insignificant.

The DCC should take note of the development and ensure that mosquitoes are destroyed. It is the only way to prevent dengue from spreading menacingly.