Dengue touches 1,000 mark, 729 H1N1 cases till now

2012 Pune has witnessed 34 H1N1 and 11 dengue deaths since January.

On Wednesday, the city registered its 1,000th dengue case of the current year. Going by the figures, cases of dengue have outnumbered that of swine flu (H1N1) this year. There have been 729 swine flu cases.

As far as the toll is concerned, the city has till now witnessed 34 deaths due to H1N1 and 11 due to dengue. An official statement issued by acting chief medical officer of Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) Dr S T Pardeshi said the highest number of cases was registered in November. As many as 441 cases were registered with the local civic body in November, 270 in October, 137 in September and 31 in August. The earlier months since January had seen a smattering of cases with 13 in July and 12 in June. According to the statement, no dengue cases were reported in February and March.

However, the reporting of cases from private hospitals was intensified after the death of filmmaker Yash Chopra two months ago. State Health Minister Suresh Shetty had urged private hospitals to immediately start the right type of treatment so that patients with dengue fever could be stabilised. Instructions were issued to municipal authorities to urge hospitals to report each dengue case.

Dengue control has a multi-sectoral approach and all departments have to be involved to check the spread of the vector that causes dengue, doctors taking up dengue cases said. With the local civic body and the state health authorities intensifying the campaign against vector-borne diseases, reporting each case has now led to such high numbers, experts have pointed out.

According to virologists, three to four strains of dengue fever have also added to the rise in the number of infections. Private practitioners observed a cyclical pattern where there had been a lull for the last two years when there were few dengue patients.

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