Dengue death toll rises to 13; Total cases swells to 589

New Delhi, Oct 4 (UNI) As the total number of dengue cases swelled to 589 in the capital, 13 people succumbed to the viral disease with two more deaths reported from AIIMS.

An AIIMS spokesperson said 14-year-old Reshma and 35-year-old Bansi died after suffering haemorrhagic fever.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's two grandsons--Rohan and Madhav-- were today diagnosed with dengue fever at AIIMS, doctors said.

Seventeen-year-old Rohan and eleven-year-old Madhav were admitted to a private ward of AIIMS with high fever and other symptoms of the disease. Doctors said their condition was stable.

They were brought to the hospital from the Prime Minister's Official 7 Race course residence, the doctors said.

While Reshma, hailing from Maarut, died at 0430 hrs today, Bansi, a native of Mathura in Uttar Pradesh, succumbed last evening. He had been admitted to AIIMS yesterday morning, the spokesperson said.

Twenty nine new dengue patients were admitted to the institute in the past 24 hours, of which three are from AIIMS campus.

The spokesperson said at present 72 patients, including 19 resident doctors, students and nurses from the institute, are admitted in AIIMS. Two patients were discharged since yesterday.

Since August, a total of 158 dengue patients were admitted in the Hospital, he added.

A student -- Raj Kiran-- died September 30 due to viral fever. Two students-- Kunal Kumar Yadav and Rohan Khoda-- have been admitted to the ICU and their condition is critical.

AIIMS Director P Venugopal reviewed and discussed the management of patients and ongoing preventive measures with heads of departments.

An official said more than 2,500 patients were screened in the newly set up fever screening Emergency OPD in the past 42 hours.

He said the ongoing preventive measures for stopping the mosquito breeding as well as anti-mosquito measures were intensified.

MCD Medical Health Officer N K Yadav told reporters that about 589 cases of Dengue had been reported till 1000 hours this morning, of which 352 were from Delhi while 237 others were reported from outside the capital.

The worst affected from Dengue have been the Nazafgarh, Karol Bagh and Shahdara (North) zones, which have reported 49, 44 and 45 cases respectively.

However, unconfirmed reports put the total number of cases at 1,000.

The MCD today challaned the Swami Dayanand hospital in Shahdara (North) zone after Mayor Farhad Suri, during a surprise inspection, found mosquito breeding in the premises of the hospital run by the Corporation.

The MCD has, over the last week, 'challanned' about 13 hospitals, including Guru Tegh Bahadur Hospital, the ESI hospital, Modi Hospital, Ganga Ram Hospital, Batra Hospital, the Bhimrao Ambedkar Hospital for not doing enough to prevent the breeding of mosquitoes on their premises.

Most of these hospitals were 'challened' after MCD officials, during an inspection, found stagnant water on their campuses.

''The hospitals have been asked to make efforts to curb growth on their premises of possible breeding for mosquitoes,'' Mr Yadav said.

AIIMS Resident Doctors' Association General Secretary alleged Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss should help doctors in AIIMS to combat the situation.

''The situation has come to this point and the Health Minister is playing petty politics.... He should come and help as a doctor,'' he said.

Faculty member and Progressive Medicos and Scientists' Forum spokesperson Dr Vikas Bajpai accused the AIIMS management of negligence.

''At a time when there is an explosion in cases of dengue at AIIMS, most of the senior medical staff of AIIMS casualty has been deputed to organise the Indo-US Summit on Emergency Medicine that is going on at AIIMS,'' he said.

''The emergency services have been virtually left to junior doctors who are not oriented to deal with the outbreak of Dengue,'' he alleged.

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