The number dengue affected patients in the provisional state capital crossed 200 figure mark on Tuesday with the district health department reporting 31 new cases of the disease on the day. With these cases the number of patients affected by the vector borne disease jumped to 212.
The district vector borne diseases officer, Subhash Joshi said that out of the total 31 new patients found positive for the disease in the Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) test 30 belonged to Dehradun while one was from Tehri district. On the day three cases of the disease each were reported from Raipur, Karnpur and Ladpur areas of the city.
The symptoms of Dengue are persistently high fever, rashes, headache and pain in the joints. In the acute cases the platelets number decrease drastically which could prove fatal for the patient. The Tiger mosquito (called due to the characteristic stripes on its body) is responsible for transmitting the virus from one person to another. Rainy season is most conducive for rapid growth of Tiger mosquito which can lay about 1200 eggs at a time and 400 -500 larvae can emerge from these eggs that take a week’s time to hatch.
The health experts say that since the Aedes mosquitoes - the vector of dengue- are capable to lay their eggs in one spoonful of water so the pots, vases, water bottles and coolers should be decanted regularly. They are of the view that it is advisable that everyone should wear full sleeve clothes to reduce exposure of their body for the mosquito to bite as Aedes mosquito bites during day time.