Dengue claims 17 lives in Delhi; 673 cases reported

New Delhi, Oct 6 (UNI) Dengue outbreak in the national capital has so far claimed 17 lives even as the total number of reported cases rose to 673.

Two patients yesterday died in the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, (AIIMS) where 99 dengue patients were undergoing treatment, doctors said.

Fifty-five-year-old Laxmi Narayan, a resident of Bulandshahr, succumbed to haemorrhagic fever. He was admitted to AIIMS yesterday, doctors said.

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 yesterday. AIIMS officials have put the total number of dengue cases till 1000 hrs yesterday morning at 673, out of which 409 are from Delhi and the rest are reported from outside.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's two grandsons--Rohan and Madhav-- were on Wednesday diagnosed with dengue fever at AIIMS, Doctors said their condition was stable and they will be discharged in a couple of days.

An official said more than 4000 patients have been 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.

The worst affected areas from dengue Najafgarh, Shahdara (North), Karol Bagh, and Central Zones which have reported 58, 50, 46 and 40 cases respectively.

About 130 students and resident doctors from AIIMS submitted a memorandum to AIIMS Director P Venugopal, alleging failure of the administration to check mosquito breeding in the campus.

The memorandum alleged that the death of AIIMS student Raj Kiran was due to the negligence of the management.

''Neither is the death of Raj Kiran or affliction of so many students with dengue a matter of chance. The outbreak of dengue at AIIMS has become an annual affair,'' it said.

Raj Kiran, a seventh semester MBBS student died after suffering from haemorrhagic fever on September 30.

Progressive Medicos and Scientists' Forum spokesperson Dr Vikas Bajpai alleged that AIIMS management's ''callousness had led to the situation in the Institute''.

''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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