Double sting: Chikungunya, dengue toll in Delhi climbs to 30

Chikungunya and dengue continued to wreak havoc in Delhi with the death toll from the two vector-borne diseases climbing to 30 today even as the number of affected people crossed 2,800.
A 75-year-old man from south Delhi succumbed to chikungunya complications at a city hospital today, taking to 12 the number of fatalities due to the disease.
The death toll due to dengue rose to 18 with half of the fatalities reported from AIIMS even as the number of cases of this vector-borne disease crossed 1,100.
J D Madan died this morning at the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital (SGRH), the fifth person to have lost life to complications triggered by chikungunya, at the hospital in last four days.

"He had acute febrile illness and was tested positive for chikungunya by rapid PCR test, and died at 6:45 am of chikungunya sepsis with septic shock and cardio-pulmonary arrest," hospital authorities said.
Five deaths from chikungunya complications were reported till yesterday at Apollo Hospital here, and most of the victims were aged 80 or above.

AIIMS had confirmed one suspected case yesterday. The victim, an old man from Muzaffarnagar, had died earlier this month of multi-organ failure triggered by chikungunya.
According to the National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme (NVBDCP), the number of chikungunya cases in Delhi has spiked to 1,724 till September 11 as fever clinics in the city continue to be swamped with patients.

Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain, meanwhile, said unlike dengue, chikungunya in itself cannot cause death.
"Nadda ji(Union Health Minister J P Nadda) told me no one died of chikungunya in the entire country. People die directly of dengue. But medical literature says normally people do not die of chikungunya," he said.
The AAP government also requested the Centre to convene a meeting of the health ministers of neighbouring states to prepare a strategy to deal with dengue and chikungunya "outbreak" as many of the patients are coming to Delhi due to "lack" of proper healthcare facilities there.
In a report released today on vector-borne disease cases at AIIMS, the premier institute said, "Nine dengue patients have died from September 1 till date."

At least 1,158 cases of dengue have been reported in the national capital with nearly 390 of them being recorded in the first 10 days of September, the month in which the vector- borne disease begins to peak.
Delhi is showing the spurt in chikungunya after nearly 10 years and health experts are conjecturing that this "upsurge" could be due to "evolution" in the chikungunya viral strain.
Dengue and chikungunya both are caused by the same aedes mosquito but dengue can be contracted through four viral strains while chikungunya is caused only by one strain.
Doctors say that chikungunya is not a life-threatening disease in general, but in rare cases leads to complications that prove fatal, especially in children and old persons.

Seven of the 12 chikungunya victims belonged to Uttar Pradesh, including two from Ghaziabad, and five from Delhi.
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"A total of 96 patients were admitted to AIIMS, out of which 56 have been discharged. Among the patients, both for dengue and chikungunya, 70 per cent belonged to Uttar Pradesh, 10 per cent to Bihar and the rest to Delhi," a report released by the AIIMS said.
As of today, SGRH has 23 patients of chikungunya admitted in the hospital, two of them in intensive-care unit (ICU). All the five patients who have died of chikungunya were elderly patients, officials said, adding one patient of dengue is also admitted, but no fatality from it has taken place at the hospital.

The hospital has admitted 100 patients till today this season, who have tested positive for chikungunya and 39 tested positive for dengue, SGRH said.
Till Tuesday, at least nine deaths due to dengue were reported in the national capital, though the South Delhi Municipal Corporation, which compiles the report on vector-borne diseases on behalf of all civic bodies here, has put the death toll at four.
At least 1,158 cases of dengue have been reported in the national capital with nearly 390 of them being recorded in the first 10 days of September, the month in which the vector- borne disease begins to peak.

Out of the total number of cases, August alone has accounted for 652.
The last dengue fatality reported was of Iram Khan (25), a native of Meerut, who lived in Jamia Nagar in south Delhi. She succumbed to dengue on August 31 at Apollo Hospital.
The other three deaths reported by SDMC include Nazish (38), sister-in-law of Okhla MLA Amanatullah Khan, who had died of dengue shock syndrome at Apollo Hospital on August 12.
Muskan (12), a resident of Shaheen Bagh here, had died on July 29, while Deepak (19), from Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh, succumbed to the disease on July 27. Both died at Safdarjung Hospital.

Besides, five other fatalities have been reported by different hospitals in the city which have not yet been acknowledged by the SDMC.
The vector-borne disease had claimed its first victim on July 21 when a girl from Jafrabad in northeast Delhi died at Lok Nayak Jai Prakash (LNJP) Hospital.
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 1996, a severe outbreak of dengue had occurred in Delhi when about 10,252 cases and 423 deaths were reported.