Dengue cases in Delhi rise to 7,082 this year
New Delhi: With 113 fresh cases reported over the last one week in the national Capital, the total number of people diagnosed with dengue this season has reached to 7,082, according to the latest report released by Municipal Corporations. However, the number of cases reported last year till the time was 9,214.
According to the report, the number of chikungunya cases stand at 405 with four new cases being reported this month so far. However, one new case of malaria has also been reported, taking the total number of cases to 920 this year.
The Municipal Corporations have claimed to put their efforts to contain the vector-borne diseases and that yielded a positive result, a senior corporation official said. The dengue breeding checkers of the municipal corporations have found mosquitoes breeding in nearly 2.5 lakh households during the inspection and served over 1.9 lakh legal notices for developing the favourable atmosphere for breeding in their houses or premises.
According to the data released by all three corporations, which are grappling with rising number of cases of the vector-borne diseases, the areas falling under the three municipal corporations, the cases of breeding reported were more than 70,000 in areas of North Corporation, over 95,000 and over 62,000 cases under areas fall under South and East corporation respectively. Further, the three civic bodies have also launched 25,731 prosecutions after breeding was found, the report said.
According to municipal health officials, most of the breeding detected in waste products left in open. Domestic breeding of mosquitoes is one of the main reasons responsible for people contracting these diseases, he said.
Noticing increasing cases of vector-borne diseases, all three civic bodies had issued an advisory on prevention and control of vector-borne diseases and called for prevention of breeding at the source and made it clear that taking precaution is the only effective tool for prevention and control of these diseases.
Dengue and chikungunya are caused by the bite of Aedes agypti mosquito, which breeds in clear water, while Anopheles mosquito, which causes malaria, can breed in both fresh and muddy water. In one of the worst outbreak, a total of 12,221 chikungunya cases were reported in Delhi till December 24, 2016, out of which 9,749 were confirmed.
