Delhi dengue cases to 1,373; Death toll at 25

New Delhi, Oct 14: As Delhi struggles to cope with the mosquito menace, dengue death toll in the national capital climbed to 25 today and the total number of patients increased to 1,373.

Twenty-five-year-old, Farhana, a resident of Hauz Rani, Delhi succumbed to the viral disease in AIIMS at 0200 hrs.

MCD officials said of the total cases till 1000 hrs this morning, 892 were from Delhi and the rest from outside.

''Ninety-five more cases were reported in the past 24 hours in Delhi,'' they said.

Central Zone, Najafgarh and Shahdara (North) continued to be the worst affected areas which have reported 181, 111 and 102 cases respectively.

In AIIMS, which is facing a dengue deluge, 39 new patients were admitted in the past 24 hours taking the total number of patients undergoing treatment for the viral disease to 165.

Thirty-four patients were discharged from the institute during the same time period.

More than 15,500 patients have been screened at the AIIMS emergency OPD since October 3, doctors said.

An average of 1000 people are being screened daily at the emergency OPD.

The hospital is conducting about 1,600 platelet-counting tests daily with the help of four separator machines, functioning round-the-clock.

Doctors at the premier healthcare institute today again appealed to Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss to declare Dengue an epidemic.

'' Dengue is not abating.... The numbers are increasing every day. Dr Ramadoss must declare it an epidemic. More resources to fight the disease will be available then,'' RDA General Secretary Dr Anil Sharma said.

''AIIMS, a super specialty institute, has been reduced to a hospital which will only deal with dengue. Our resources have have been stretched to the limits,'' he added.

Only emergency and dengue patients are being admitted to the the hospital.

''We have been told only to admit dengue and emergency patients. People have been waiting for their renal, heart or liver surgeries for years are being turned away,'' he pointed out.

''If an epidemic is declared than we can refer dengue patients to other hospitals and attend to other patients then,'' he said.

UNI

Related Stories