Five dengue deaths in AIIMS; Toll shoots up 40

New Delhi, Oct 19 (UNI) With the death of five dengue patients in AIIMS today the toll in Delhi shot to 40 and as the total number of reported viral disease cases increased to 1,820.

While 25-year-old Ramnath, a resident of Kotla Mubarakpur area in Delhi, died at 1315 hrs, Jitender Kumar, from Kondli, succumbed to the disease at 1335 hrs.

The dengue fever claimed the life of Hanuman Singh, a resident of Mainpuri, at 1320 hrs.

Sixty-five year old Riyaz from Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh died at 0035 hrs while Yashpal Singh from Delhi's Palam area died at 0210 hrs.

MCD officials said of the total number of reported cases till 1000 hrs this morning 1,144 are from Delhi.

AIIMS Medical Superintendent Dr D K Sharma said 53 fresh admissions had been made in the institute in the past 24 hours till 1000 hrs while 49 patients were discharged.

In all, 180 patients area admitted in the institute, he added.

Dr Sharma said 150 suspected dengue patients are under observation in AIIMS.

''The disease is not abating. We are getting a constant stream of people in AIIMS. The numbers are on the rise,'' Dr Sharma said.

However, he expressed the hope that with the changing weather mosquito breeding and dengue will come down.

More than 21,000 patients have been screened at the AIIMS emergency OPD since October 3, doctors said.

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 are struggling to keep pace with the dengue deluge and only emergency and dengue patients are being admitted to the hospital.

Central Zone, Shahdara(N) and Najafgarh continued to remain the worst affected areas in Delhi with 210, 147 and 139 cases respectively.

Delhi Health Minister Yoganand Shastri today said the MCD has been asked to re-evaluate its anti-dengue programme and adopt long-term solution for such diseases.

''A joint effort of all the departments is needed to ensure that such vector borne diseases do not recur year after year,'' he added.

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