NEW DELHI: The number of dengue cases being reported from around the city jumped sharply this past week – having more than doubled in comparison to the previous week.
The city reported 67 cases this past week. Altogether, Delhi has recorded 225 confirmed dengue cases and one confirmed death this season, according to the information released on Monday by the municipal corporations.
Most of the cases – 90 – have been reported from the South Delhi Municipal Corporation, following by the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (44 cases) and the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (37 cases) with 20 cases being reported from other States. Four Chikungunya and 63 malaria cases have also been reported.
The areas in Delhi that have registered the largest number of cases include Central Zone of the South Delhi Corporation (31), Najafgarh (29), Shahdara (North) (19), Shahdara (South) (18), Narela (15) and West (12).
The officials of the SDMC, which has the highest number of dengue cases, maintained that they are trying to curb further spread of the disease.
SDMC spokesperson Mukesh Yadav said: “We are identifying the wards where mosquito breeding is more and ramping up spraying as well as prosecutions.”
The officials said in the Central and Najafgarh Zones of the SDMC, mosquito breeding was more due to open drains that carry sewage as well as densely-populated residential pockets.
The vector-borne disease has had one victim, Rishi Qaddafi, an eight-year-old boy hailing from Srinagar who resided in South Delhi. He died of dengue at the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital.
A second death was reported on October 9 from Chhawla village in West Delhi, but municipal officials said they had not received confirmation yet.
“The death happened in a private hospital, which usually do not conduct the ELISA test to determine if the death was indeed due to dengue. We have one dengue death on our record this year,” said a senior SDMC official.
Over 5,500 dengue cases and six deaths were registered in the Capital last year, according to the SDMC, which compiles report for vector-borne diseases in the city.
Delhi had witnessed a large number of dengue cases in 2010, with over 6,200 cases. In 2009, 1,153 cases were registered, over 1,300 cases in 2008, 1,131 cases in 2011 and 2,093 cases in 2012.
Civic bodies are continuing with preventive measures like fumigation, checking of breeding areas and awareness campaigns to control dengue menace.
According to the report over 1,48,015 households were found positive for mosquito breeding, while legal notices were served to over 1,04,752 for mosquitogenic conditions. 11,845 prosecutions were also launched during the same period.
