Vidya Balan gets dengue, Shahid Kapoor gets BMC notice

Dengue mosquitoes, bred in none other than actor Shahid Kapoor's house, sent Vidya Balan to Khar's Hinduja Hospital on Friday. Though Vidya was advised two weeks of bed rest, news of her dengue diagnosis sent BMC officials straight to her building at Juhu Tara Road -where Shahid lives on the ground floor -for an inspection of dengue breeding grounds and resulted in them slapping notices on the actor and another resident of the building.
According to BMC's executive health officer Dr Minnie Khetarpal, 'The team found a breeding ground at a floor above hers and in the swimming pool inside the complex. The actress has tested positive in the rapid test and not in the ELISA test, which we consider as a confirmatory test for dengue.'

Vidya had been abroad for shooting and had returned only recently.However, she fell ill immediately after returning and went to the hospital on Friday for tests. Civic officials immediately rushed to her third-floor apartment and conducted a search for dengue breeding ground.Though nothing was found there, they continued looking in the entire building. Their search yielded results when they found aedis aegypti larvae in the fourth-floor apartment belonging to Meera Patel, another resident.The larvae were found in a petri dish and on a tarpaulin strip tied in her apartment.
The BMC officials had to temporarily stall their search as they were refused entry into Shahid's apartment.
'Shahid's manager asked them to wait and about 1.5 hours passed like that. Then our officials approached a nearby police van and asked them for help. The policemen came and spoke to Shahid's manager and only after that were the officials allowed entry,' informed Rajan Naringrekar, chief insecticide officer.
Once inside, officials found rain water accumulated in Shahid's pool and upon inspection, they found a large amount of larvae there too. Samples were taken and a notice under Section 381B was slapped immediately on Kapoor and Patel.
This section is applied when a property owner's negligence leads to mosquito breeding. The matter will now be heard by the Metropolitan Magistrate and a fine of up to Rs10,000 can be levied.
Shahid's spokesperson told Mumbai Mirror that the actor was thankful for the BMC inspection as without it, he wouldn't have known about it. 'Shahid is concerned about the findings as there is a newborn in the house. The proximity of the house to the beach and the monsoon are the probable caused behind the breeding of dengue mosquitoes in his pool,' the spokesperson added.
Meanwhile, a Goregaon building ' Satellite Tower ' has also been slapped a notice under the same section. Civic officials had found breed ing in the building premises a few weeks ago and had asked them to comply within 15 days. When they failed to do so, and breeding was found in seven spots again, they were prosecuted for negligence.
Three people have died of dengue so far this year and over 1,500 people have been admitted with suspected dengue, of which the civic body has confirmed only 122 cases.
'If you see the trend in the last few years, we have been seeing a spurt in dengue during September and October. The trend is continuing this year as well,' said Dr Khetarpal, adding that everyone should be alert and not ignore symptoms such as fever and body ache.