The dengue fever has taken its second casualty in the national Capital this year as per the latest report issued by the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC). Sureshwar Singh (52), a resident of North-East Delhi’s Shahdara region lost his life to dengue at the Max Super Speciality Hospital on October 10. However, the Delhi Municipal Corporation (DMC) has recorded his death now only after confirming that it was a clear case of dengue — unlike the previous case of an eight-year-old boy in Sir Ganga Ram Hospital who was suffering from leukemia and died of dengue later.
The public relations officer of DMC, YS Mann, said that post-mortem investigations to confirm dengue as the cause of the death delayed the process and thus the confirmation was delayed. “We had received information regarding Singh’s death but, we couldn’t confirm it in our report without further investigations,” said Mann.
Additionally, the number of cases of dengue in the city has also catapulted with over a 100 cases being recorded in the past one week. Until October 25, the DMC has recorded 340 cases of dengue — which is 115 cases more than those recorded on October 18.
The DMC has been conducting weekly checks and several organizations have been served with legal notices for breeding mosquitoes. However, there has only been a rise in cases of dengue. What started with only 30 cases per week went on to 60 cases and now 115 cases per week.The data given by the SDMC states that the maximum cases this year have been recorded in the their region A total of 155 cases were recorded there while 68 were in North Delhi Municipal Corporation and 56 in East Delhi Municipal Corporation.
So far, this year had seen the lowest cases of dengue since 2009, but with the latest increase in cases, 2009 had the lowest cases of dengue till October 25 which were 287.Until now, the DMC has found 1,58,417 houses with positive breeding of mosquitoes. These houses have been given legal notices as well. However, additionally, 6,72,302 houses have been sprayed and fumigated to avoid breeding.Mahender Singh, a 48-year-old resident of West Delhi, was the first in the city who died of dengue.