A two-and-a-half-year-old girl died of dengue today while two more deaths were reported in the national capital due to the vector-borne disease as the toll mounted to eight this season.
While Usra succumbed at Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital today, three-year-old girl Noma died at Apollo Hospital on August 28, officials said.
Sources said both the girls were from Shaheen Bagh area in south Delhi.
The total number of fatalities in Delhi due to the deadly disease now stands at eight, even though the municipal authorities have acknowledged only two deaths.
At least 487 cases of dengue have so far been reported in the national capital this season, with 368 of them being recorded last month.
"There has been a death at our hospital due to dengue, a young girl, who succumbed today," RML Hospital's Medical Superintendent Dr A K Gadpayle said.
"A young girl died of dengue shock syndrome last Sunday. Another youth (18-year-old Asad Iqbal from Bihar) from Bihar had also died the same day of dengue shock," a source at Apollo Hospital said.
Meanwhile, Safdarjung Hospital Medical Superintendent A K Rai said besides, two reported fatalities at the hospital, another death had occurred there in the month of July.
"There was no dengue fatality last month at our hospital, which has reported 263 dengue cases and nearly 250 chikungunya till August 29," he said.
"OPD (Out Patient Department) is filled with patients. Besides, many of our technicians and doctors themselves are down with the vector-borne fever, affecting the services," Rai said.
12-year-old Muskan, a resident of Shaheen Bagh had died on July 29 while 19-year-old Deepak, from Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh succumbed to the disease on July 27, both at Safdarjung Hospital. The civic bodies, however, have only acknowledged these two death cases so far.
This year, dengue cases have been reported rather early. 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.
Okhla MLA Amanatullah Khan's sister-in-law had also died of dengue on August 12 at the Apollo Hospital.
Doctors have advised patients and public in general to keep themselves adequately hydrated and not resort to self-medication, and also go for blood tests, before rushing to get admitted in hospitals.
Meanwhile, a country-wide indefinite government nurses strike proposed from tomorrow, including in Delhi is likely to severely affect medical services, at a time when hospitals are swamped by patients suffering from vector-borne diseases.
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