With four deaths from dengue and 710 cases being reported from hospitals across the city so far, the Red Cross is faced with a growing demand for blood, needed to fight the outbreak.

After ‘extensive’ background check, the Health department on Thursday maintained that four persons had died due to dengue. The MCD, meanwhile, maintained that only two deaths had occurred all season.

According to the Health department, two patients died in Jaipur Golden Hospital and St Stephen’s Hospital last week. “Our nodal officer had checked the investigation reports and came to the conclusion that the two patients had died due to dengue. We will speak to the MCD and tell them to update their figures,” said Delhi Health minister Kiran Walia.

In a city that is perennially short of blood, the demand at the Indian Red Cross Society went up to 2,000 units per day at the peak of the outbreak. “We had to start more camps and request our volunteers to donate blood to meet the demand for platelets. As of now, we are still giving over 20 units every day to government blood banks especially for dengue,” said Dr S P Agarwal, Director, Indian Red Cross Society.

Thirty eight new cases of dengue were reported in the city on Thursday.

The Red Cross has supplied 800 and 2,000 units of blood to government hospitals in September and October respectively. The bank has already supplied 500 units this month.

With the number of dengue cases refusing to dwindle, the state Health department stepped in last week, instructing the Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital, Baba Saheb Ambedkar Hospital and Hedgewar Hospital to prepare a plan for treating patients.

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