Winter is here but dengue still going strong, number of cases crosses 9K

NEWDELHI: Hospitals in Delhi are still recording cases of dengue, with 97 cases recorded in the week ending December 9. Usually, the number of cases increase during the rainy season and decline with the onset of winter.

This takes the total number of dengue cases this year to above 9,000 till December 9. This is more than double the number of cases recorded in same period last year.

“Sporadic cases of dengue are still being recorded from hospitals across the city. This year the number of dengue cases is higher than last year, even though breeding control measures were intensified. This is because last year there was a chikungunya outbreak, which is also spread by the same mosquito,” said a municipal health official.

Of the total 9,169 cases, patients from 4,681 cases were residents of Delhi, the rest came to the city hospitals for treatment from neighbouring states. The number of deaths due to dengue, however, is less this year, with the civic bodies recording only four deaths till date.this is in comparison to 10 deaths that were recorded last year. This year the dengue strain is the mild DENV3 (same as last year), which is not associated with serious complications like haemorrhagic fever, where internal bleeding can lead to circulatory shock and death.

A total of 923 cases of chikungunya (553 patients Delhi citizens) and 1,139 malaria cases (575 patients Delhi residents) were recorded till December 9, as per weekly report of corporations.