As dengue and chikungunya cases flooded hospitals in New Delhi, a fogging blitz was unleashed on the capital city’s slums and poor neighbourhoods in a belated attempt to contain the Aedes aegypti mosquito.
Fogging machines mounted on cycles spewed smoke in crowded bylanes, engulfing residents, among them children. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government deployed 100 machines and promised several hundred more.
But was fogging really the answer or was it just a display of government action after an epidemic of vector-borne diseases had overtaken the city? What did the fog contain and should it. . .
