On September 19, the capital reported 912 cases of Dengue and on Monday, the city detected 1,355 Dengue patients, a leap of almost 50 per cent.
This year in September alone, 1,193 cases have been detected. In the last six years, only the year 2010 had more cases in the corresponding period.
An official with the municipal body, which gives out the data, attributed the steep rise to the favourable conditions for breeding of mosquitoes which transmit Dengue in the latter half of September.
Moreover, unlike earlier, when many government hospitals were not sending the dengue reports to the MCD, more cases are now being reported.
The official death count, however, stays at two. Unofficially though, another three cases have been reported in private hospitals, but none during the last three days. The MCD had classified those three deaths as “suspected dengue death cases”.
The difference in many private hospitals’ test kits and those accepted by the government is the primary reason for the discrepancy in the death count. This factor also accounts for the difference in the official dengue count and the hundreds of cases reported by private hospitals which are not included in the count.
The victims confirmed by the capitals’ municipal corporations are 47-year-old Phool Singh (47), a resident of Ashok Nagar, and 21-year-old Priyanka of Pratap Nagar, who died on September 5 and September 9 respectively.
The north corporation has reported 663 cases, the maximum in the city, with areas like Rohini and Narela being the worst affected. Of the 1,355 cases, 29 cases have been attributed to Delhi’s neighbouring cities.
The government as well as private hospitals are overburdened because of the inflow of patients. However, the public hospitals are bearing the major brunt as most poor patients flock to these hospitals.
As a result, in some hospitals, one bed is shared by as many as three patients while in some others, operation theatres are being converted into dengue wards.
This year however, malaria has, comparatively, kept a low profile. Only 100 cases so far have been reported this year, with 22 so far this month. Last year, 190 cases of malaria were officially confirmed by this time of the year.