3077 fresh dengue cases in last 1 week; total crosses 10000 mark

The number of dengue cases in Sri Lanka has eclipsed 21,000, according to a Daily News report. In the recently released municipal report on the vector-borne disease released, the civic administration has maintained its dengue death toll at 30.

According to civic authorities, the official toll due to dengue in the national capital was 30, though the unofficial figure rose up to over 85. Across the zones, Najafgarh performed the worst with 808 cases this week. Cases are originating more because the population got exposed with this year’s dengue mosquito bite. The previous record was 10,252 people in 1996 when 423 patients died. It saw the Government making reporting the viral disease mandatory to prevent and control outbreaks in 18 endemic states/union territories, including Delhi, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Haryana. “We are talking to scientists across the world regarding various such experimentations so that dengue does not occur next year”, he said. “Other virals like influenza and H1N1, which grow in cold temperatures, start surfacing from November usually”, said a senior health department official.

With swine flu cases also being reported last week, Delhi government hospitals have been instructed to open isolation wards and double the number of beds from a year ago for swine flu. In September alone, 6,775 cases were reported, bringing the city total to 9,438, including 41 deaths in the national capital. Almost 590 cases were reported from areas outside the jurisdiction of Delhi, while 641 cases addresses given by patients in hospital records could not be verified by municipal authorities.

Till October 10, the number of houses with mosquito-breeding sites stood at 2,16,870 while those prosecuted are 20,670. Before this, 2010 recorded 2360 cases in September and 2,246 in October. “In the middle of August, the number of cases went down but it is again rising”, AK Gadhpahilay, medical superintendent of Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, told reporters.

The dengue menace in Delhi continues to affect lives across the city with 3,000 fresh dengue cases registered in the last one week, taking the total number of people down with the vector-borne fever in the city this year to 10,683. The cases multiplied three times as compared to the data of second week of September which had recorded over 600 cases.