At least 47 fresh cases of dengue have been reported in the national Capital, taking the total number of people infected with the disease to 200 this year. Besides, 37 new cases of malaria and six cases of chikungunya also reported last week taking the total number to 183 and 57 respectively.
Out of dengue cases, 131 patients who diagnosed with the disease belong to Delhi while 69 patients traced here were from different states and other five patients did not provide their address. Similarly, out of total cases of malaria, 114 were from Delhi and 69 visited the city for treatment purposes from other states, as per the report of the SDMC.
Mosquito-breeding has been reported in at least 59,366 households and 45,849 legal notices have been issued this year. The dengue breeding checkers have checked 14,069,524 houses and also issued challans to 3,359 numbers of office and residential premises,” according to the latest report by the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC), which compiles data after taking inputs from three other corporations: south Delhi, East Delhi and North Delhi municipal corporations.
A senior SDMC official said all the preventive steps have been taken to reduce the cases. “The key to prevention of Dengue is ensuring there is no clean stagnant water in homes and around, which does not allow the Aedes mosquitoes to breed, and therefore dengue cannot spread,” he said.
Dengue mosquito larvae breed in clear, standing water while those of malaria mosquito thrive even in dirty water. Doctors have advised people to take precautions and ensure that there is no breeding of mosquito larvae around them. They have urged people to wear full-sleeves clothes and use mosquito nets.
The malaria parasite is transmitted by female Anopheles mosquitoes, which bite mainly between dusk and dawn. According to the World Health Organisation malaria is caused by the protozoan parasite Plasmodium. Human malaria is caused by four different species of Plasmodium: P. falciparum, P. malariae, P. ovale and P. vivax.