Dengue shows declining trend in Delhi: Health Ministry

New Delhi, Oct 23 (UNI) Dengue, which has till now claimed 124 lives in the country, has shown a declining trend in Delhi during the past three days.

A total of 7488 cases of dengue has been reported in the country this year. The maximum of 173 new cases being reported during the past 24 hours from Punjab, 73 in Haryana, 71 in Rajasthan, 53 in Delhi and NCR and 12 from Chandigarh. During the past 24 hours two people have died, one in Delhi and the other in Rajasthan, said Dr P L Joshi, Director of the National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme.

A total number of 2104 cases of dengue have been reported from Delhi, NCR and other neighbouring states. Of these, 1337 cases have been reported from Delhi while 767 from NCR and other states which include 234 from Haryana, 420 from Uttar Pradesh, 16 from Rajasthan and 97 from other states.

In Delhi alone, 30 new cases of dengue have been reported during the past 24 hours with one death being reported from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences. Yesterday 43 new viral disease infections were reported while on October 21, 53 dengue cases were reported, Dr Joshi pointed out. The worst affected zones in Delhi are Shahdara, Karol Bagh and Najafgarh.

However, the change in weather is not the reason for decline as temperature from 16 to 30 degrees celsius were congenial for mosquito transmitting dengue and chikungunya, he said. September last week and first week of October was the time when intensity of the transmission was maximum, but with increase in vector control activities like fogging there has been a decline in mosquito breeing, vector and larval density, he said and added that this was the cause for the decline.

But many people may already have been infected with dengue virus and be in the incubation period, which vary from 2 to 15 days depending on the immune power and nutrition status of the person, he pointed out and said they could show manifestation of the diasease in the coming days. He cautioned people not to be complacent in vector control efforts.

Apart from Delhi, the maximum number 909 cases of dengue have been reported from Rajasthan followed by Kerala 834, Gujarat 456, West Bengal 627, Uttar Pradesh 513, Tamil Nadu 308, Punjab 586, Maharashtra 582, Haryana 305, Karnataka 92 and Andhra Pradesh 79, he informed.

Meanwhile, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and other states have reported 435 new cases of Chikungunya during the past 24 hours.

In Delhi, of the 190 samples tested for suspected Chikungunya, 29 have been confirmed this year. During the past 24 hours, 18 samples were tested in the national capital and one was found to be positive.

This year of the 14418 blood samples tested at the National Institute of Communicable Diseases, Delhi and NIV, Pune, 1653 were found positive for Chikungunya indicating that 12 per cent samples were infected with Chikungunya virus.

However, Chikungunya has shown a definite decline during the past 24 hours, he said and added that the extent of the disease has also been confined now to 12 districts in five states.

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