Delhi records 635 dengue cases in first 12 days of October

NEW DELHI, OCT. 18: The number of dengue cases in Delhi has seen a spike with 635 new infections being reported in the first 12 days of October taking the total tally to 1,572 so far this year, a civic body report said on Monday.

Of the total 1,572 cases recorded this year, as many as 693 were reported in September alone.

The city had logged 937 cases of dengue this year till September-end, and 635 fresh cases were reported in the first 12 days of October, taking the tally of the vector-borne disease in the city to 1,572, according to the report released by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) on Monday.

It is also the highest number of dengue cases logged during the January 1-October 12 period since 2017, when the corresponding figure was 2,884, the report stated.

The report said that as many as 314 fresh dengue cases were reported in a week between October 5 and 12. Between October 1 and 5, the city reported 321 cases.

As many as 1,196 cases of dengue were reported in October last year, the report said.

No death has been reported so far this year due to the disease while in 2021 the dengue had claimed 23 lives, the report said.

In 2015, the city had witnessed a massive dengue outbreak, with the number of cases crossing 10,600 in October. It was Delhi’s worst dengue outbreak since 1996.

According to the MCD report issued on Monday, the city recorded 23 dengue cases in January, 16 in February, 22 in March, 20 in April, 30 in May, 32 in June, 26 in July and 75 in August.

The MCD report on vector-borne disease also stated that the cases of malaria also rose by 29 in the national capital in a week, taking the total tally to 182.

As many as 32 cases of chikungunya have also been reported this year in Delhi till October 12, the report stated.

Cases of vector-borne diseases such as dengue and malaria are usually reported between July and November, sometimes stretching till mid-December.

According to officials of MCD’s health department, symptoms of vector-borne diseases include high fever, headache, rash and muscle and joint pain, which are quite similar to that of COVID-19 which also includes fever or chills, muscle or body aches, fatigue and headache among others.

Last year, 9,613 dengue cases were recorded in the city, the highest since 2015, along with 23 deaths — the highest since 2016.

In 2018, Delhi had reported 1020 dengue cases during the January 1-October 12 period, according to the report. The figures in 2019, 2020 and 2021 were — 644, 395 and 723, respectively.

Ten deaths each were reported due to dengue in 2016 and 2017, four in 2018 and two in 2019.

The official data showed that 4,431 dengue cases were recorded in Delhi in 2016, 4,726 in 2017, 2,798 in 2018, 2,036 in 2019 and 1,072 in 2020.

The MCD report stated that breeding of mosquito larvae has been found at 1,44,162 households this year till October 12.

Authorities have issued 1,03,064 legal notices for mosquitogenic conditions, and 39,819 prosecutions were launched so far.

-PTI