12yearold becomes Delhi’s first dengue victim this year

DEADLY BITE Boy dies at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital due to multiorgan failure; Delhi records 325 dengue, 194 chikungunya cases

Delhi reported its first dengue death for this year, with a 12-year-old boy succumbing to the mosquito-borne viral infection, earlier this month.

The boy died at west Delhi’s Sir Ganga Ram Hospital on August 1, due to multi-organ failure.

With 161 new cases reported in the past one week, a total of 325 people have been affected by the vector-borne disease in Delhi so far this year. The number of cases is twice that in the same period last year (162).

In 2016, there were 4,431 cases of dengue and 10 deaths.

Last year Delhi witnessed a chikungunya outbreak with 7,760 total cases having been reported, and this year, too, 194 cases have already been reported. In the corresponding period last year, 20 samples had tested positive for chikungunya.

“The reason that higher numbers of chikungunya cases are being recorded this year is that the surveillance is better. Last year, nobody had expected a chikungunya outbreak as the viral infection does not commonly spread in Delhi,” said a Delhi government official.

“It was only after hospitals started receiving hundreds of cases, that attempts to collect data were made,” the official added. After the outbreak, the municipal corporation listed chikungunya as a notifiable disease, making it mandatory for hospitals to report cases.

Both the mosquito-borne illnesses are spread by the same day-biting aedes aegypti mosquito, which breeds in clean stagnant water. The mosquito population usually increases during the monsoons.

Malaria cases are also going up, with 215 cases reported till August 19th. In the same period last year,165 cases tested positive.

Intermittent rainfall that Delhi has been getting this season is one of the reasons for mosquito breeding. “The intermittent rain creates conducive environment for the growth and multiplication of disease-causing viruses and bacteria and also create an ideal breeding ground for mosquitoes,” said the health department official, Delhi government.

The intermittent showers create a conducive environment for the growth and multiplication of diseasecausing viruses and bacteria and also create an ideal breeding ground for mosquitoes.