Delhi dengue cases cross 3,000 for year, worst since 2015

In 2015, Delhi logged 15,867 cases and 60 deaths in an unusual spike driven by a particularly virulent strain of the disease

The national capital may be going through its worst dengue outbreak since 2015, with over 3,000 infections and one death so far this year. However, the severity of this outbreak was obscured for seven weeks till Tuesday, as civic authorities held back dengue data from the public in view of the G20 Summit, according to statements made by councillors on the floor of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) House.

Dengue cases usually spike in September and October, which means the numbers will likely swell for a few more weeks, till temperatures begin to drop. (Sakib Ali /HT PHOTO)

MCD ‘s public health department, in a written response to question raised by councillors, on Tuesday informed the House that Delhi has clocked 3,013 dengue cases so far this year, making this the city’s worst outbreak of the vector-borne disease since 2015. That year, Delhi logged 15,867 cases and 60 deaths in an unusual spike driven by a particularly virulent strain of the disease that spread through the city.

Yet, according to MCD house leader and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) councillor Mukesh Goyal, there were “strict instructions from the top” that the Capital’s dengue numbers for the year not be released due to the G20 Summit, which was held on September 9 and 10.

“Our senior officers have told us that there were strict instructions from the top that reports should not be released due to the G20 Summit as several heads of state and representatives would be visiting Delhi. Delhi’s image should not reflect a situation where a foreign delegation decides to not visit the city due to rising dengue cases,” Goyal said during a short-notice discussion on the floor of the House.

His comments triggered an immediate backlash from the Bharatiya Janata Party, which accused the AAP of trying the disguise the spread of the outbreak “to hide the real situation”.

Raja Iqbal Singh, former North MCD mayor and the BJP’s councillor from Mukherjee Nagar, said the data was “hidden from the public eye” because matters on the ground were “spiralling out of control”.

“Efforts to control dengue on the ground are lacking. The numbers released by the corporation are not accurate... There are not enough medicines and anti-mosquito larvicides for fogging drive,” Singh told the House, demanding an inquiry.

Yogesh Verma , former leader of house and representative of Keshavpuram, said that multiple deaths have been reported in areas of several councillors, and the official figure of just one death does not reflect the reality. “If the officers are citing that the reports were stopped due to G20 then they should be named and action should be taken against them. They were betraying the people of Delhi,” he said.

The Delhi government did not respond to queries for comment sent by HT.

Mayor Shelly Oberoi, later in a post on X, wrote in Hindi, “There is enough medicine for fogging and destroying larvae in Delhi, BJP is trying to mislead people.”

MCD has not released its usual dengue bulletin, released every week during the monsoon, since August 7, and officials have so far defended this saying that it “is not a statutory mandate to release a report every week”, and that “things are under control”. In the last update on August 7, for the weekly cycle ending on August 5, Delhi had registered 105 new cases, taking the overall count of dengue cases reported during this year to 348.

BJP state president Virendra Sachdeva, in a press conference, said that at present, the number of dengue patients is continuously increasing in both government and private hospitals. He said in the past, MCD would share the complete dengue data, “but to hide its incompetence, now Arvind Kejriwal is not allowing MCD to share these figures”.

In comparison to the 3,013 dengue cases so far in 2023, during the same point last year, Delhi recorded 937 dengue cases. This number was just 341 in 2021; 212 in 2020; 282 in 2019; 481 in 2018; 1,807 in 2017; and 1,692 in 2016. It was only higher in 2015, when Delhi clocked 5,982 dengue cases between January 1 and September 26.

Nine people died of the disease last year, a dip from 23 in 2021, but higher than the counts in 2020 (1), 2019 (2) and 2018 (4). The city saw 10 deaths of the infection each in 2017 and 2016.

To be sure, dengue cases usually spike in September and October, which means the numbers will likely swell for a few more weeks, till temperatures begin to drop.

Temperatures of around 20°Cmake the environment inhospitable for the aedes aegypti mosquito, which causes dengue.

According to the state health ministry, a more dangerous strain of dengue is in circulation this year.

On July 28, health minister Saurabh Bhardwaj said that genome sequencing of 20 dengue-positive samples in Delhi showed that 19 of these had severe strain type 2. While the type 1 strain can cause fever, type 2 — a more severe variant — can lead to fatal haemorrhagic fever with shock and chills.

Dr BK Tripathi, professor in the department of medicine at Safdarjung Hospital, said that the rapid rise in cases was also being reflected in hospitals where many dengue patients also complained of bleeding.

“Cases of repeat infection are more complicated irrespective of the strain. The type 2 strain is more prevalent but very complicated cases have not started appearing in bulk as yet,” he said.

Meanwhile, municipal health officer LR Verma countered assured that adequate stocks of larvicides and fogging drugs have been procured to last the dengue season this year.