Dengue surge in India: Dengue continues to wreak havoc in several parts of India. There is a surge in the number of cases and deaths due to vector-borne diseases across the country.
Last week, Air India’s long-range A350 aircraft fleet chief pilot Captain Sandeep Gupta, 53, died of dengue in New Delhi. In West Bengal, at least two persons, including a 12-year-old girl had died of dengue in the past week. According to media reports, this year’s death toll in the state is over 30. The state is one of the worst-hit due to vector-borne disease.
Dengue is a viral infection caused by the dengue virus (DENV), transmitted to humans through the bite of infected mosquitoes. Several doctors told Financial Express.com that this year the dengue outbreak is caused by a particularly aggressive strain, DENV-2.
Dengue outbreak in India: Here’s what we know so far
- Delhi hospitals are seeing an increased footfall of dengue patients. It is noteworthy that the city’s civic body has not released reports on vector-borne diseases for the last several weeks.
- Over 1,000 new dengue cases were reported in the last 10 days in West Bengal’s Kolkata. The Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Bharati Pravin Pawar has alleged that the state government is not sharing data about dengue cases with the Centre for its vector-borne disease control programme. According media reports, the state has reported over 30,000 dengue cases this year so far.
- The city of Mumbai is experiencing a significant increase in in cases of malaria and dengue. In the first two weeks of September, there have been 756 confirmed cases of malaria and 703 cases of dengue.
- On Sunday, The state recorded 335 fresh dengue cases in the last 24 hours. With this, the state’s dengue tally increased to 4,168 on Saturday.
- In Kerala, dengue cases have been going up steadily in all districts. From September 1 to 21, the State has recorded 3,700 suspected/ probable cases and 1,106 confirmed cases of dengue. The state has reported 38 confirmed deaths.
- In Karnataka, over 9,000 cases of dengue have been reported from across the state, according to the state health department.
