Delhi is currently witnessing the worst dengue outbreak in five years with 67 new cases being added on Saturday. With this the total number of cases this season has gone up to a staggering 741. However, no deaths have been reported in the past 24 hours.
“The Capital is seeing its worst outbreak of dengue in five years with 741 cases being reported so far. Good monsoons and water-logging caused by massive construction work for the Commonwealth Games have caused breeding of mosquitoes which has lead to the outbreak,” said Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) chief medical officer N. K. Yadav.
Dengue is accompanied by high fever, severe headache, muscle and joint pain and rashes. “We have been advertising in newspapers and TV to raise public awareness about not allowing water collection near residential and office complexes and seeking medical treatment as soon as the symptoms of dengue are detected,” said a senior Health Department official.
Due to the increase in the number of dengue cases all over the National Capital Region, many of the schools in Noida and Ghaziabad have already advised their students to wear full-sleeve vests or shirts and full length pyjamas or trousers so that the spread of this lethal vector-borne disease is checked.
In Noida, Cambridge Schools took the lead in urging all its students to cover themselves up as dengue is normally associated with mosquitoes that bite during daytime. Thereafter many other schools followed suit. Neighbouring Ghaziabad, where a large number of people have died due to dengue has also woken up to the scourge and many schools such as DPS, Indirapuram have issued notices to their students advising them to wear full-length clothing and use mosquito repellent creams to save themselves from mosquito bites.
Delhi, however, is yet to adequately respond to this situation and students here continue to remain exposed to mosquitoes.