Mumbai sees 360 cases of dengue, up from 129 last year

Mumbai has recorded 360 cases of dengue this year, a rise from 129 cases recorded last year. The city’s dengue death toll stands at three. Doctors across the city are also seeing an acute surge in cases, with many patients requiring hospitalisation.

The city has recorded 360 cases of dengue this year, a rise from 129 cases recorded last year. The death toll of the mosquito-borne stands at three. Doctors across the city are also seeing an acute surge in cases, with many patients requiring hospitalisation.

Dengue is spread by the female Aedes aegypti mosquito that breeds in clean water and is known to be a day-biter. Often known as breakbone fever, dengue leads to fever, sometimes in two phases, joint pain, severe body ache, rashes, persistent vomiting, nasal bleeding, among other symptoms

Doctors said patients are reaching hospitals with extremely low platelet counts and require anywhere between five to 15 days of hospitalisation. “There definitely seems to be more awareness and patients are coming in early,” said Dr Nitin Karnik, head of medicine at the civic-run LTMG Hospital in Sion. In his practice alone, Karnik estimated about 10 to 15 dengue-related hospitalisations every day. “Most patients have extremely low platelet count, however, not many have required platelet transfusion,” he said.

LTMG hospital’s paediatric department has also recorded a spike in dengue-related hospitalisations. Compared to 47 hospitalisations in 2020, the department has recorded 102 admissions this year as of September 22. “We have had children coming in with dengue shock syndrome and multi-organ dysfunction, but we have managed to pull them out of the complications,” said Dr Radha Gulati Ghildiyal, head of paediatrics at LTMG Hospital.

Dengue is spread by the female Aedes aegypti mosquito that breeds in clean water and is known to be a day-biter. Often known as breakbone fever, dengue leads to fever, sometimes in two phases, joint pain, severe body ache, rashes, persistent vomiting, nasal bleeding, among other symptoms. There is no direct treatment for dengue and most interventions are for symptom relief.

“It’s hard to pinpoint what is causing the surge,” said physician Dr Hemant Gupta, who practices in south Mumbai. During his daily consultations, Gupta has been seeing six to seven confirmed cases of dengue every day and about two to three require hospitalisation. “I have seen more dengue cases and hardly any Covid-19 cases this month,” he said.

The dengue spreading mosquito is known as a ‘shy mosquito’ which flies away easily, and therefore may bite 20 to 25 people for feeding. Dengue cases are therefore often seen in clusters.

“With many people working from home and schools yet to open, the spread of dengue becomes easier if there is an infected mosquito,” said Gupta, adding the dengue-spreading mosquito mostly breeds indoors and people should thus take precautions to avoid breeding in their homes.

Some of the measures could be to removing stagnated water from windows, flower pots, changing water from decorative plants and covering water containers.

A civic official said that most cases in September have been recorded from E (Byculla), G South (Lower Parel) and G North (Dadar) wards. The pest control department has inspected over 400,000 houses and destroyed more than 4,100 dengue breeding spots this month.