Dengue infection tally crosses 3,000-mark in Delhi

Over 800 dengue cases have been reported in the national capital in the first two-and-half weeks of November, taking the infection tally of the vector-borne disease to more than 3,000 so far this year, according to a civic report issued on Monday.

In October, 1,238 cases were logged.

The dengue infection tally stood at 2,761 till November 11, and 283 more cases have been recorded since then till November 18.

The city has also recorded 219 cases of malaria and 44 cases of chikungunya this year, according to the report released by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD).

Of the total 3,044 reported cases, 693 were logged in September.

In 2017, the city had logged 4,556 cases in the January 1-November 18 period, the report stated.

No death has been reported so far this year due to the disease while in 2021, 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.

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 the MCD’s health department, symptoms of vector-borne diseases include high fever, headache, rash, muscle and joint pain, which are quite similar to that of COVID-19 which also include 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 2,406 dengue cases during the January 1-November 18 period, according to the report. The corresponding figures in 2019, 2020 and 2021 were 1644, 901 and 7,128.

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 1,64,524 households this year till November 18.

Authorities have issued 1,15,590 legal notices for mosquitogenic conditions, and 45,092 prosecutions were launched so far.

(With PTI inputs)

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