Delhi Is Reporting More Dengue Cases Than Daily COVID Tally; 3,740 In Two Weeks Of November
Delhi is reporting around 30 cases of COVID-19 a day as the pandemic seems to be well under control in the national capital. But there is hardly anything to be relieved for the national capital's healthcare system.
That is because the Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan (LNJP) Hospital in Delhi alone is seeing more suspected cases of dengue than the national capital's daily COVID-19 tally.
20-25 patients daily at one government hospital
According to doctors at the Delhi government's largest hospital, they are seeing are 20-25 new patients with dengue, and 40-50 suspected cases with fever admitted every day.
LNJP Director Suresh Kumar, said compared to the last 3-4 years, this year there is an increase in dengue cases. This is because of the prolonged monsoon and second, there are more mosquito breeding sites.
Over 5,000 Dengue cases in Delhi already
Delhi has so far reported a total of 5,277 dengue cases this year of which 2,569 cases were recorded in the last week ending November 13, as per the report of the municipal corporation.
Of the dengue cases in Delhi this year, 3,740 were reported in the first 13 days of November.
In the previous years, the total count of dengue cases stood at -- 4,431 (in 2016), 4,726 (2017), 2,798 (2018), 2,036 (2019) and 1,072 (2020), according to the report.
In 2015, the city had witnessed a massive outbreak of dengue, during which the number of reported cases crossed 10,600 in October alone, making it the worst outbreak of the vector-borne disease in the national capital since 1996.
Steps taken to curb spread
Earlier this week, the East Delhi Municipal Corporation had deployed a drone to spray larvicide on the banks of river Yamuna, in an attempt to control the breeding of mosquitos.
The move essentially is to supplement the efforts of the municipal team, especially to reach inaccessible areas, like swampy land or the middle of a lake, where staff cannot go to do spraying, officials said.
While most of the patients recover in a matter of days, dengue can make pregnant women vulnerable to unfavourable pregnancy as compared to non-infected pregnant women, experts said.
If pregnant women get infected with dengue, there are possibilities that the foetus may suffer from growth restriction (IUGR) and may be underweight.
Dengue virus (DENV) causes fever and severe haemorrhagic symptoms in humans. Dengue Virus Serotype-2 is more fatal.
The vector-borne disease spreads through the bite of Aedes aegypti mosquito and is dangerous as the infected mother may pass on the infection to the foetus.
With dengue haemorrhagic fever affecting pregnant women, foetus may suffer from growth restriction (IUGR) and may be underweight.
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