Dengue menace: 2 more deaths; total cases rise to 311 in Delhi

Two more persons including a 12-year-old girl from south Delhi have succumbed to dengue, taking the death toll due to the vector-borne disease in the city to four as the total number of cases jumped to over 310.
Out of the total cases reported this season in the national capital, nearly 192 were recorded in the first three weeks of August, according to a municipal report released today.
Both victims died at Safdarjung Hospital. The girl, identified as Muskan, a resident of Shaheen Bagh here, died on July 29 while 19-year-old Deepak, from Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh succumbed to the disease on July 27, a senior civic official said.

This year, dengue cases have been reported rather early.
The vector-borne disease claimed its first victim on July 21 when a girl from Jafrabad in northeast Delhi died at Lok Nayak Jai Prakash (LNJP) Hospital.
Okhla MLA Amanatullah Khan's sister-in-law died of dengue on August 12 at Apollo Hospital here, though the municipal authorities have not officially acknowledged these two deaths.

A total of 91 cases were reported in July, six cases were recorded in May, while June witnessed 15, it said.
Thirty-four fresh cases were reported till August 20 since the last count and the total number of cases so far in the city is at least 311, the senior civic official said.

The capital city had seen 277 cases of the vector-borne disease till August 13.
Last year, the city saw a staggering 15,867 dengue cases -- the worst in 20 years -- with the disease claiming 60 lives, as per municipal reports.
In 2015, only six cases were reported in June, while July had registered 36.
This season, North Delhi Municipal Corporation's Sadar Paharganj, Rohini and Narela Zones reported a case each, Karol Bagh and City Zones two each while Civil Lines recorded three cases.
Najafgarh and Central Zones of South Delhi Municipal Corporation have recorded 15 cases each while West and South Zones recorded 9 and 8 cases respectively, said the official of SDMC, which compiles dengue report on behalf of all the civic bodies in the city.

SDMC has reported 47 cases overall, while East Delhi Municipal Corporation has recorded 16. Of the total cases, 89 were reported from areas outside the jurisdiction of the three municipal corporations.
While 44 cases were reported from Uttar Pradesh, 14 of those diagnosed with the disease came from Haryana and 91 from other states.
In NDMC area, breeding of mosquitoes was found in 28,478 houses, 48,118 houses in SDMC area and 10,421 in EDMC area. The number of prosecution launched in these areas were 2074, 3369 and 519 respectively, the report said.
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Safdarjung Hospital Medical Superintendent A K Rai said over 600 patients yesterday came to its fever clinic.

"A girl and a teenaged boy from Uttar Pradesh died of dengue last month. No fatality has been reported after that but we are getting both dengue and chikanguniya cases.
"Though we have recorded about 42 chikanguniya cases, it is actually a lot more," he said.
Dr S P Byotra, Senior Consultant and Head of Department of Internal Medicine at the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital here said, "Prevention is key to lowering the incidence of dengue in India and commercial access to the dengue vaccine is critical at this point. Several endemic countries like Mexico and Brazil have already introduced the vaccine to complement the vector-control programmes and we hope that by the end of this year it will be available in India too."

"Currently, we treat the complications caused due to dengue and not the disease itself. Majority of the dengue patients recover in due course with the symptomatic management of the disease. Only about 10 per cent of the cases progress to severe complications leading to internal hemorrhage," he said.
Dr N K Ganguly, Visiting Professor of Eminence at the Translational Health Science and Technology Institute, Faridabad cited the recently issued position paper on dengue vaccine by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as a significant step to expedite the availability of a dengue vaccine.
"An integrated management approach comprising preventive and vector control interventions that aim to reduce dengue transmission, thereby preventing disease outbreaks can be instrumental in saving lives," he said.

"In fact, in July, the WHO recommended that countries should consider introduction of the dengue vaccine in geographic settings where epidemiological data indicate a high burden of disease," Ganguly said.