Over 1,200 cases of dengue have been reported in the national capital in October, taking the infection tally of the vector-borne disease beyond the 2,000-mark so far this year, according to a civic report issued on Monday.
The 1,238 cases, recorded till October 26, is more than half of the total number of cases of dengue logged this year. The city has also recorded 200 cases of malaria and 40 cases of chikungunya this year, the report said. The dengue infection tally had stood at 1,876 till October 19.
Nearly 300 new cases were logged in the week that followed, taking the total number of cases of dengue reported this year in Delhi to 2,175 till October 26, according to the report released by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD). Out of the total reported cases, 693 were reported in September.
It is also the highest number of dengue cases logged during the January 1-October 26 period since 2017, when the corresponding figure was 3,829, 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 and 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 1,595 dengue cases during the January 1-October 26 period, according to the report. The corresponding figures in 2019, 2020 and 2021 were 1069, 612 and 1,537, 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 1,55,312 households this year till October 26. Authorities have issued 1,09,505 legal notices for mosquitogenic conditions, and 42,928 prosecutions were launched so far.
(With PTI inputs)
