Mumbai: Intermittent rainfall could lead to an increase in breeding spots for mosquitoes that spread dengue, civic officers said. This year, the disease has claimed 14 lives in the city till date, the most in seven years.
The BMC, which has been waging a long-running battle against the dengue-causing aedes aegypti mosquitoes, said its Insecticide Department has identified 21,883 breeding spots till September, of which 1,655 were indoors. Department officers said the most common places for breeding inside homes were ornamental plants, petri dishes and refrigerator defrost trays. Comparatively, only 5,663 breeding spots for anopheles mosquito, which carries malaria, were identified during the same period.
Dr. Rajan Naringrekar, Insecticide Officer, BMC, said despite several several awareness drives, people continue to downplay the danger. Though the department has augmented its staff strength by adding 360 contract workers and gone in for several more measures, more than 3,700 people with dengue-like fever were admitted to civic hospitals in September. Though over 8,000 people were hospitalised with dengue-like symptoms this year, the BMC has confirmed only 412 cases of dengue in September, and 705 till date this year.
Dengue cases have increased considerably in private hospitals too. “The increase has been a pattern for the past few years; dengue cases are generally high in August, September and October,” Dr. Pratit Samdani, a general physician who practices at several south Mumbai hospitals, said. Patients have been coming in with classic symptoms like fever, joint pain, low platelet count and dengue hepatitis, and 80 cases in September were confirmed as dengue. “This year, fortunately, dengue has been easily treatable. Few cases have shown severe outcomes and required platelet tranfusions.”
