There is no respite in sight for the residents of the national Capital from vector borne diseases this year as malaria has made a comeback after the gap of five years, claiming six lives.
Dr KK Aggrawal, president of Indian Medical Association( IMA) said, “There has to be a comprehensive approach for all type of mosquitoes. Eradicating ades mosquito is no solution. Increasing incidence of malaria is a great concern at a time when dengue and chikungunya are creating havoc.”
What worries the most is that while our neighbouring nation Sri lanka is celebrating malaria-free tag awarded by the World Health Organisation (WHO) on September 5, New Delhi is continuously breeding plasmodium vivax, one of the five species of malaria parasites, according to scientists at National Institute of Malaria Research (NIMR), said a health expert.
It may be noted that The Pioneer had reported two deaths due to malaria in September and July this year. Thirty-year-old Parveen Sharma, a resident of Mandawali succumbed to severe multi-organ failure triggered by malaria at Safdarjung Hospital while another death was reported in July when a 62-year-old man from Jyoti Nagar had died of malarial complications at AIIMS in July.
The civic agencies figures released on Monday showed 25 malaria cases in the city out of which eight cases were reported between September 1 and 24. The latest statistics on dengue and chikungunya cases reported by corporation stand at 6,741 cases.
PK Hazarika, the Medical Health Officer of South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) told The Pioneer, “A total of six malaria deaths have been reported so far, of which four reported from hospitals such as AIIMS, Safdarjung and Deen Dayal Upadhaya (DDU) in the recent past. The patients who died due to malaria were from Fabridabad, Mathura from Uttar Pradesh.”
Previously, vivax malaria was detected in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and North-East, said health experts. Medical officials are repeatedly claiming that the lax handling of municipal bodies is the sole factor for the spread of these diseases as the sanitation level in the city remained abysmal, leading to the breeding of mosquitoes that cause vector borne diseases.
Meanwhile, as Delhi is reeling under health crisis of the decade with three vector-borne diseases playing havoc at a time, the dengue and chikungunya cases have gone up nearly 6,800 this year. The latest statistics on dengue and chikungunya cases reported by corporation on Monday showed 1,692 dengue and 4,949 chikunguyna cases respectively, with 314 new dengue cases last week.
Meanwhile, doctors at AIIMS have concluded it is the same as the one that caused the 2006 outbreak of the vector-borne disease.
“We have identified the genotype of the virus — East Central South African — and sent the report to the National Vector-Borne Disease Control Programme (NVBDCP). It is the same genotype that was in circulation in 2006 outbreak,” lalit Dar of Department of Microbiology at AIIMS said.
Chikungunya is generally considered a non-fatal disease. It is caused by the chikungunya virus (CHIKV), which has one serotype only. There are three genotypes of this serotype — Asian, West African and East Central South African.
A genotype is the part (DNA sequence) of the genetic makeup of a cell and serotypes are groups within a single species of microorganisms, such as bacteria or viruses, which share distinctive surface structures.
All India Institute of Medical Science’s (AIIMS) virology laboratory of the microbiology department, has alone reported about 2,000 positive chinkungunya cases till Monday.
Dr AC Dhariwal, Director, National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme (NVBDCP) said, “Sensing the present health crisis in the city, all the civic bodies have been asked to conduct the intensive fogging drive. On the orders of National Green Tribunal (NGT), Delhi government and Municipal Corporation have been asked to prepared a long term detailed report how to tackle mosquito borne disease.”
PK Hazarika, Medical Health Officer at South Delhi Municipal Corporation said, “A committee has been formed to prepare detailed solution to beat mosquito epidemic along with the various stakeholders such as DDA, DJB, Delhi government and concerned department of SDMC. This would be implemented soon in 2017,” informed Hazarika.
At least 15 fatalities due to chikungunya complications have been reported at various hospitals in the city, although SDMC and Delhi government have not acknowledged these deaths yet. However, corporation reported only four deaths due to dengue but the real numbers are at least 20.
last year, the city saw a staggering 15,867 dengue cases--the worst in 20 years--with the disease claiming 60 lives, as per municipal reports.