304 dengue cases reported in the weekly cycle, downward trend continues: MCD

A senior MCD official from the public health department said it seems that the city has gone past its peak weekly dengue case count in September.

Dengue cases in Delhi continued to witness a downwards trend, with the Capital registering 304 dengue cases over the last weekly cycle ending October 19, a report released by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) on Tuesday said.

Fumigation conducted in Lajpat Nagar. (HT file)

According to the report, Delhi over the preceding three weekly cycles had registered 314, 321 and 421 dengue cases respectively. No official death case related to dengue has been recorded so far.

A senior MCD official from the public health department said that a downward trend is clearly visible, and it seems that the city has gone past its peak weekly dengue case count in September.

“However, people still need to be careful as there is a sudden drop in ambient temperature in the open environment. During morning and evening hours, the adult mosquito tends to migrate inside homes, looking for warmer temperatures. People should be careful during this period as Delhi transitions towards winter season,” the official said.

According to Tuesday’s report, the overall case count for the year has risen to 1,876 cases, as on October 19. In comparison, the city, in the corresponding period for 2021 had registered 1,006 cases. The figure till October 19, 2020 was 489, 833 in 2019, 1,310 in 2018 and 3,272 in 2017.

A second MCD official said the increase in the number of dengue cases over the last few years is due to the increase in the number of hospitals and healthcare facilities reporting cases of the vector-borne disease. “The disease was declared a notifiable disease in October 2021, after which we have moved from a sentinel surveillance system, under which dengue cases were only reported from key major hospitals, to mandatory reporting from all healthcare facilities,” the official said.

The public health department action-taken report states that a large number of mosquito breeding cases continue to be detected. Over the last one week, domestic breeding checkers -- the field workers of public health department -- have detected 7,224 houses with mosquito breeding, while 4,035 legal notices have been issued.

Delhi has also reported 12 new malaria cases, taking the annual count to 194, while the addition of 6 new chikungunya cases has taken the annual disease case count to 38 cases till October 19.