12 dengue cases in city,highest in day

So far,85 people have tested positive for dengue in the city,three of them from neighbouring states. The highest number of cases in a single day had stood at 10,reported on Sunday.

Civic officials have intensified fumigation efforts across the city,with surveillance efforts showing a near equal distribution of cases in North and South corporation,at 34 and 35 cases,respectively. Only ten cases have been reported so far from the areas under the East municipal corporation.

“This spurt in cases is expected,as mosquito breeding takes place once the monsoon ends,till the onset of winter. The total number of cases is still the lowest in a decade,for this time of the year,” a senior health official from the South municipal corporation said.

While 230 cases had been reported in the capital till the end of September,only 68 patients tested positive till September 29 this year. In 2010,3,201 patients had tested positive for dengue,during the same period. Two patients have died of the disease so far in Delhi — a nine-year-old girl from Sangam Vihar and a 38-year-old man from Loni in Ghaziabad.

Doctors said this year,the dengue strain was milder,and if patients report to hospitals and seek medical help in time,they did not require hospitalisation.

“We have hardly seen any complications like the Dengue Shock Syndrome (DSS),or platelet fall in dengue this year. If patients do not self-medicate and report to hospitals at the early signs of fever,the disease is very manageable,” a senior doctor from the medicine department of AIIMS said.

The Delhi government has issued instructions to all hospitals to purchase NS-1 antigen test kits,which detect the viral disease within the first four days of fever. Currently,the antibody tests take at least a week to screen for the virus.

Delhi Health Minister Dr A K Walia said,“We are trying to detect the virus early,so that we have an accurate picture of the disease prevalence in the city and neighbouring states.”