Country's premier hospital All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi is under threat of dengue as multiple cases have been reported from East Kidwai Nagar, which is located across the road. The Central government housing complex in East Kidwai Nagar is bracing with a dengue outbreak, with at least 40 people tested positive for the disease over the past three weeks.
One of the buildings of the complex, sprawling across 86-acre quarter, reported 15 cases of dengue. Parts of the complex are still under construction, Hindustan Times reported.
Dengue mosquito is spread by female Aedes aegypti that bites during earning morning and during the evening before dusk. These mosquitoes breed in clean stagnant water.
In Delhi, 177 dengue cases were reported in the week ending October 19, the highest in a week so far this year. The total number of people tested positive for dengue this year has already touched 644. The mosquito-borne disease has not claimed any life so far this year.
In 2018, 1,020 people tested positive for dengue in the national capital, while the year 2017 witnessed 2,884 dengue patients by the third week of October.
Resident of East Kidwai Nagar Saba Mazhar, who was diagnosed with dengue in the first week of October, told the daily, "The fever has gone but I still feel weak."
Two people in a family of three in the apartment next door were also tested positive for dengue two weeks ago.
According to the report, Mazhar shifted into the type 5 quarters allotted to her in March this year and has been battling mosquito menace since. "There has always been a mosquito problem here. Even after keeping all the doors and windows closed it becomes difficult for me to stand in one place in the kitchen and cook. The mosquito population went up after the rains in August," she added.
In another instance, three people in a family of four residing in the same building also were diadnosed for dengue this month. “My platelet count is low. The doctors have admitted me for observation. I am being given saline regularly. My wife and son are better off as they did not need admission. They are recuperating at home,” the daily quoted a resident of the same building, who did not want to be named.
The resident further added that there 36 families residing in the building of which 15 people have been diagnosed with dengue. "It could be because of water collection in the building under construction near us,” he added.
The report said that Sunita Boora, a resident living in the neighbouring building, was diagnosed with dengue two days ago. “It has just been three months since I moved here and I have read about dengue only in the papers so far. This is the first time I got it. One night, I got a very high fever, about 103 degrees, and it did not subside even after taking paracetamol. I had to call a doctor in the middle of the night and he prescribed me some other medicine, I had to put ice packs on my forehead before the fever went down,” she said.
Notably, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in September had launched a campaign "10 Hafte-10 Baje-10 Minute" (10 weeks-10 O'clock-10 minutes) to prevent the spread of dengue. The Chief Minister urged people of the national capital to check there is no breeding ground for disease-spreading mosquitoes in the house as well as in the neighbourhood.
The daily quoted senior consultant of internal medicine at Moolchan Medicity, Srikant Sharma saying that the number of dengue cases have started to increase only in mid-September. He further said that no just the cases of dengue are coming late this year unlike the previous years, but there are comparatively less number of patients this year. "But it is not to say that there has been an 80% reduction or anything. We are still receiving a good number of cases,” he said.
Srikant Sharma said not just from East Kidwai Nagar, patients from Lajpat Nagar and Defence Colony are visiting him.
The report quoted Dr Ramesh Kumar, medical officer, New Delhi Municipal Council, saying that not just in East Kidwai Nagar, domestic breeding checkers have been going door to door to check for breeding of disease-spreading mosquitoes. Fogging is also being carried out in areas from where cases are reported.
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