Of five new dengue victims in Delhi, four are under 18, say officials

There was only one dengue death in New Delhi last year, two in 2019 and four in 2018, according to official data. In 2015, a major dengue outbreak killed 60 people

Four out of the five persons who died due to dengue between the end of September and October in Delhi were children, according to government data. The five deaths took the official toll in the national Capital to six this year, the highest since 2017 when the mosquito-borne disease claimed 10 lives.

According to experts, children and working adults who are often outside the house are more susceptible to getting infected by the Aedes aegypti mosquito. (Sakib Ali/HT file photo)

In comparison, there was only one dengue death in New Delhi last year, two in 2019 and four in 2018, according to official data. In 2015, a major dengue outbreak killed 60 people.

This year, the infection claimed the lives of a six-year-old boy from Tri Nagar on October 15, a 17-year-old boy from Pitampura on October 16, a 14-year-old boy from West Punjabi Bagh on October 23, and a 9-year-old boy from Rangpuri Pahari on September 9. A 27-year-old man from Punjabi Bagh also died of dengue on October 20. Two weeks ago, the death of a 35-year-old woman from Delhi in September was the first to be recorded in the official toll.

This year, 34 deaths were reported to the committee, of which 25 have been investigated. The committee is yet to examine nine more deaths, which is likely to drive up the toll further. Once a dengue death is reported by a hospital, an expert committee audits all documents to see whether it was indeed the infection that killed the person and whether the origin of the case was in Delhi.

“There are nine more deaths being investigated by the committee, and more might be reported as we are seeing a large number of dengue cases,” said a senior official from the municipal corporation, on condition of anonymity.

According to experts, children and working adults who are often outside the house are more susceptible to getting infected by the Aedes aegypti mosquito.

“This year, we have surprisingly seen more children die than adults, be it in Delhi or neighbouring UP, which is also reporting many cases. Ten- and 11-year-olds are also dying; usually dengue and other infections are more lethal to children below the age of five whose immune system cannot fight the infection,” said Dr Virendra Singh, professor, department of paediatrics, Kalawati Saran Children’s Hospital.

He said, “We are seeing otherwise healthy children being admitted with the infection, rapidly deteriorating and dying. Most of them die of multi-organ dysfunction and circulatory shock. Having said that, they still constitute a very small proportion of the total cases. In children with dengue, parents must keep an eye out for fever that goes down and comes back again around Day 4, bleeding, acute pain in the abdomen, and incessant vomiting.”

Not only the deaths, the number of cases has also shot up in the capital, with 531 cases recorded during the week ending on October 30 according to official data.

This takes the Capital’s dengue tally to 1,537 this year. The week before, 283 cases were reported.

This is also the highest number of cases reported in October since 2017. Last year, 1,072 dengue cases were reported in New Delhi, with 346 infections being recorded in October. In 2019, 2,036 cases were reported, with 787 infections recorded in October, according to official data. The number of dengue cases usually starts declining around mid-November when the temperature starts dropping.

However, according to experts, the number of dengue cases might go up, along with those of malaria and chikungunya, since these diseases have now been made notifiable as well--meaning all hospitals, clinics, and diagnostics centres now have to mandatorily report any case they record to the government.