In August, the national capital reported 75 cases of dengue. (Representational)
New Delhi:
The national capital has registered a spurt in dengue cases with the total number of cases of the vector-borne disease climbing to over 240 in Delhi so far this year, according to a civic body report released on Monday.
In the last one week, 39 new cases have been reported.
And, out of the 244 cases recorded till September 3 this year, 75 were reported in August.
It is also the highest number of dengue cases logged during the January 1-September 3 period, since 2017, when the corresponding figure was 829.
A senior Municipal Corporation of Delhi official said, the rising cases of dengue is “matter of concern for us” and “we are working on measures to combat it”.
Till August 27, Delhi had logged 205 dengue cases. As many as 244 dengue cases have been recorded in Delhi so far this year, the report said.
According to the MCD report, the city recorded 23 dengue cases in January, 16 in February, 22 in March, 20 in April, 30 in May, 32 in June and 26 in July and 75 in August.
No death has been reported so far this year due to the disease, it added.
In 2018, Delhi had reported 137 dengue cases during the January 1-September 3 period, according to the report.
The figures in 2019, 2020 and 2021 were — 122; 96 and 124 respectively.
MCD is taking several control measures i.e., public awareness, legal actions, involvement of inter-sectoral departments like DJB, Irrigation & Flood control Department, PWD, CPWD, railways, horticulture, DMRC, DDA, ASI, police, education, among others, the civic body said.
The corporation has issued 77,538 legal notices and have filed 26,320 prosecutions in this connection. It has also “imposed administrative charges on 10,438 owners of houses or buildings and Rs 23,28,700 have been collected as administrative charges,” it said in a statement.
Beat-wise field areas have been allotted to all the DBCs (dengue breeding checking staff) to impart health education followed by house-to-house inspection for breeding detection and destruction of mosquito larvae, the MCD said.
“DBCs have carried out 2,24,94,105 house visits and mosquito-breeding was found at 96,982 houses, and subsequently 8,28,707 houses were sprayed with insecticide, and larvivorous fishes were introduced at 112 points,” the statement said.
The national capital has also recorded 49 cases of malaria and 14 cases of chikungunya this year, the report said.
Cases of vector-borne diseases are usually reported between July and November, sometimes stretching till mid-December.
Civic officials said dengue cases were recorded earlier than usual this year due to weather conditions that are congenial for mosquito breeding.
Last year, 9,613 dengue cases were recorded in the national capital, the highest since 2015, along with 23 deaths — the maximum since 2016.
Ten deaths each were reported due to dengue in 2016 and 2017, four in 2018 and two in 2019.
According to official data, 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.
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.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
