Vector-borne diseases play havoc
new delhi — Vector-borne diseases — Chikungunya and Dengue — are spreading rapidly with more and more cases being reported in the national capital and neighbouring states.
In the national capital alone, the death toll due to dengue rose to 18 with half of the fatalities reported at AIIMS even as the number of cases of the vector-borne disease crossed 1,100.
In a report released on Thursday on vector-borne disease cases at the AIIMS, the premier institute said, “Nine dengue patients have died from September 1 till date.”
A top AIIMS official on Wenesday confirmed five deaths, which were earlier suspected to have taken place due to dengue.
“A total of 96 patients were admitted to AIIMS, out of which 56 have been discharged. Among the patients, 70 per cent belonged to Uttar Pradesh, 10 per cent to Bihar and rest to Delhi,” the report said.
AIIMS is getting several suspected dengue patients everyday in its fever clinics, though less number are showing confirmed cases compared to chikungunya for which 1,440 blood samples have tested positive till September 13.
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. He 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 mu- nicipal reports. In 1996, a severe outbreak of dengue had occurred in Delhi when about 10,252 cases and 423 deaths were reported.
Meanwhile, a 75-year-old man from south Delhi on Thursday succumbed to chikungunya complications at a city hospital, taking to 12 the number of fatalities due to the vector-borne disease in the national capital that is battling a severe viral onslaught.
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.
“The patient, a resident of Kalkaji, was admitted on August 12 night with complaints of fever and chills along with swelling and rashes on body. He was also a patient of chronic myeloid monocytic leukemia.
“He had acute febrile illness and was tested positive for chikungunya by rapid PCR test, and died at 6.45am of chikungunya sepsis with septic shock and cardio-pulmonary arrest,” hospital authorities said.
As of Thursday, the 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, they said. — PTI
Chikungunya, Dengue cause panic in Delhi