The Maharashtra government has issued directives to take preventive measures to stop spreading of dengue after 18 people succumbed to the disease in the state. According to officials in the health department, 762 persons tested positive from January to September 2012 for the disease. As many as 139 localities especially in urban and semi- urban areas were affected. Mumbai was affected the most by the disease with over 500 patients testing positive and three deaths being reported. According to civic officials BMC is going to put an action plan in place to tackle the rising incidence of the disease in the city. The insecticide department has already started visiting areas and fumigating, besides other vector control measures to check breeding of aedes aegypti mosquitoes responsible for spreading of the disease.