Dengue season ends with over 9,000 cases recorded in Capital

NEW DELHI: The season for vector-borne diseases has come to an end, with a municipal report on Monday saying that only 45 dengue cases were reported last week, taking the total number of people affected by the disease this year in the national Capital to 9,214.

The numbers of malaria and chikungunya cases recorded this year, till December 16, stood at 1,140 and 933 respectively, the report said.

The total number of people affected by dengue in Delhi this year, till December 9, was 9,169.

Of the 9,214 dengue cases this year, 4,704 patients were from Delhi, while 4,510 had come to the city from other states for treatment, the report said.

Cases of vector-borne diseases are usually reported between mid-July and November-end but this period may stretch up to mid-December.

This year, however, the disease had spread much earlier.

The mosquito-borne tropical disease had claimed its first victim in the city this year on August 1, when a 12-year-old boy died of dengue shock syndromes at the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital (SGRH).

Three more deaths were reported in October by the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC), which tabulates the data for the entire city.

The civic body, however, is yet to acknowledge two fatalities due to dengue at the Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan (LNJP) Hospital and the death of a boy at the Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) Hospital due to the vector-borne disease.

According to the RML Hospital authorities, Shaurya Pratap Singh (7) had died on November 22, two days after he was admitted to the hospital, the latest dengue death to be reported from the national Capital.

The number of dengue cases recorded in the city stood at 2,022 in October, while 816 cases were reported last month.

Fifty-nine cases were reported this month, till December 16, the report said.

Dengue and chikungunya are caused by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which breeds in clean water. The female anopheles mosquito, which causes malaria, breeds in both clean and muddy water.

According to the SDMC, mosquito breeding was reported from 2,11,435 Delhi households till December 16.