Dengue cases in Ghaziabad at 645, highest in seven years

Officials said the district is seeing an average of 17 new cases daily and the cases will decline only by end-October, as was the case in the previous years

With the dengue case count in Ghaziabad touching 645 on Monday, the district is seeing its worst outbreak of the vector-borne disease since 2014, when 928 cases were reported in the district with two fatalities, health officials said on Monday.

Of the 645 cases reported till Monday, 333 have been recorded in the month of October. (Sakib Ali/HT)

Officials said the district is seeing an average of 17 new cases daily and the cases will decline only by end-October, as was the case in the previous years.

Of the 645 cases reported till Monday, 333 have been recorded in the month of October while the rest were reported in the month of September. As per records, the daily average of dengue cases in September was 10.4 cases, which sharply increased to 17.33 in October.

“From Tuesday, we will be starting a one-month special drive for communicable diseases. Our focus will be to trace people having symptoms of vector-borne diseases such as dengue and malaria, while simultaneously continuing with fogging and anti-larvae drives. We have also identified eight high risk zones in rural areas while eight have been identified in urban pockets,” said Dr Rakesh Gupta, district surveillance officer.

The eight localities identified in urban centres include Sewa Nagar, Vijay Nagar, Police Line, Kavi Nagar, Loha Mandi, Surya Enclave, Mahindra Enclave and Shastri Nagar.

Health officials said a majority of dengue patients were turning to private hospitals for treatment while those with viral fever etc, were reaching government facilities for treatment.

“The cases of dengue have not shown a decline so far. Patients are mostly turning to private hospitals for treatment and many of these hospitals are full. The rain over the past two days has again caused water-logging in many areas and this may aid spread of dengue. It has been a pattern over the past several years that dengue cases decline only by end-October, when the temperature starts to drop,” said Dr Ashish Agarwal, former president of Indian Medical Association (Ghaziabad chapter).

Dr Sanjay Teotia, chief medical superintendent of Sanjay Nagar Combined District Hospital, said his hospital has treated about 15 cases of dengue so far.

“Twelve of them were admitted to the hospital while three were treated as out-patients. We still have about 150 patients with fever coming to our OPD (out-patient department) daily and we take up investigation of about 100-125 samples daily. We do not have dengue or malaria cases, but viral fever. Patients are taking five to six days to recover,” Dr Teotia said.

The first case in the district was reported on September 1, officials said. Health department records further indicate that the district registered the first 100 cases of dengue on September 15, within span of 15 days. The tally of 200 cases came in nine days, on September 24 and 300 in the next six days on September 30. The tally further climbed to 400 in another six days on October 6, and to 500 cases in the next five days, on October 11. The last 100 cases to reach 600 came in a span of five days on October 16.

Till Sunday, 381 of 624 dengue patients required hospitalisation. The dengue positivity rate is also high with a rate of 29.79% of the 2,094 samples tested, officials said.