New Delhi: 35-year-old Sarita Vihar resident Mamta Kashyap became the first casualty of this year's dengue season, with officials of the South MCD here saying on Monday that the number of dengue cases in the Capital had now risen to over 720, with over 50 per cent of the cases detected in October.
Kashyap, a resident of Metro Colony, succumbed to her illness from dengue in late September and officials have now ruled her death to have been caused by the vector-borne disease.
In light of this, all three civic bodies here have now stepped up efforts to control the outbreak — from door-to-door surveys to checking breeding of mosquito larvae and displaying thematic panels in metro trains.
The national Capital has seen a surge in dengue cases in the last two weeks. According to a civic report on vector-borne diseases released on Monday, one death due to dengue and a total of 723 dengue cases have been recorded this season till October 16, which is the highest case count since 2018 for the same period.
The total number of cases this year till October 9 had stood at 480. So, 243 fresh cases have been logged in one week. Of the total count of dengue cases recorded in Delhi this year, 382 have been reported this month till October 16, which amount to nearly 52 per cent of the cumulative cases.
According to the action taken report, 2,21,42,066 visits have been made to various houses in the city by the three municipal corporations this year, including 72,36,078 by dengue breeding checking staff of the SDMC. Of the total households surveyed, breeding of mosquito larvae were reported from 1,56,248 houses.
In south Delhi, from where the first dengue death has been recorded, breeding of mosquitoes was found at 57,547 houses, the report said. Also, 1,22,358 legal notices have been issued for mosquito genetic conditions at various sites and 18,242 prosecutions launched, it said. Civic authorities said handbills, posters and banners have been put up to raise awareness on prevention of dengue.
Messages have been displayed on metro trains, walls of public toilet blocks, bodies of auto-rickshaw to build awareness, SDMC authorities said, adding that 464 panels have also been displayed inside metro trains. Awareness messages are being sent to RWAs representatives via WhatsApp and 55 lakh bulk messages with links have also been sent to people via SMS, the SDMC officials said.
Cases of vector-borne diseases are usually reported between July and November but the period may stretch till mid-December. According to the SDMC report, 142 cases of malaria and 69 cases of chikungunya have also been reported till October 16 this year in Delhi.
A total of 1,072 cases and one death was logged in the entire year in 2020, according to the report released by the South Delhi Municipal Corporation, the nodal agency for tabulating data on vector-borne diseases in the city.
In 2015, the city had witnessed a massive outbreak of dengue, when the number of dengue cases reported had crossed 10,600 in October itself, making it the worst outbreak of the vector-borne disease in the national Capital since 1996.