Dengue death toll rises to 15; one more death in AIIMS

New Delhi, Oct 5 (UNI) As the number of dengue patients rises, one more person died this morning due to the viral disease in the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), taking the death toll in the national capital to 15 so far.

Twenty-year-old Dharam Singh, a resident of Delhi's Badarpur area, died at about 0730 hrs after suffering from dengue fever. He was admitted to the hospital at about 0430 hrs, doctors said.

The total number of dengue cases in Delhi has swelled to 589.

In AIIMS, 34 new patients have been admitted in the past 24 hours, taking the total number of dengue patients to 99, including 19 resident doctors, students and nurses from the institute, the doctors said.

The doctors said the number of patients being reported from within the institute were decreasing.

While 14-year-old Reshma, hailing from Meerut, succumbed to the viral disease yesterday, 35-year-old Bansi died in the institute after suffering haemorrhagic fever on Tuesday. Sources at Sarfdarjung confirmed that a patient had died in the hospital due to dengue.

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

Rohan and Madhav were admitted to a private ward of AIIMS with high fever. Doctors said their condition was stable. A student -- Raj Kiran-- died on September 30 due to viral fever.

An official said more than 3,000 patients were screened in the newly set up fever screening Emergency OPD since Tuesday.

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 yesterday 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 has 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, 'challaned' 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 'challaned' 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 at the institute 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 the institute,'' 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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