As number of dengue cases crossed the 3,500 mark, a teenage girl is reportedly the latest casualty of the fatal disease in the Capital. Yashica Narang (17), resident of Rajouri Garden in North West Delhi died on September 24, a report released by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) confirmed on Monday. With this, the official death toll now stands at five, while six others have been placed under ‘suspected dengue death’ category by civic bodies.
Meanwhile, cases of malaria have dipped with five reported this month compared to 62 in September. All the Municipal Corporations have intensified efforts to check the spread of disease before the ensuing Assembly elections.
“We are doing everything possible to prevent the vector-borne disease from spreading. Fumigation and anti-larval routines are being carried out along with regular checking in households,” officials said. South Delhi Municipal Commissioner (SDMC) Manish Gupta said, “We also have been doing ‘dengue homework programme’ in our schools where kids are asked to cull information about the disease, and in the process sensitise not just themselves but their parents as well.”
Till now, mosquito breeding has been found in 1,56,331 households this year, against 91,417 of last year’s for the same period of time. Number of prosecutions launched so far is 20,575, whereas last year it was 5,865 for the same period.
October registers 1,395 dengue cases
As many as 3,519 cases have been reported till Monday with October itself having registered nearly 1,400 cases, the report said. The Capital had witnessed a large number of dengue cases in 2010 with over 6,000 cases being reported.
In 2008, over 1,300 cases were registered, 1,153 in 2009, over 1,100 cases in 2011 and 2,093 last year. While figures for various Corporations stand at 1,621 (North), 981 (South) and 773 (East), 72 cases were also reported from regions in Delhi outside the jurisdiction of the MCD and 30 cases in other categories. A total of 37 cases have been reported from other States.
While cases in the Rohini zone mounted to 749, still the highest, Shahdara (North) and Shahdara (South) zones both witnessed around 400 cases. Najafgarh (304), Civil lines (295), Narela (274), and Karol Bagh (257) are among other places.
An overwhelming total of 1,962 cases were reported in September alone, the highest for a month so far this year, while October has witnessed 1,395 cases till now.