New Delhi Sees Rise in Dengue Fever Cases, to 1,008 This Year
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Related subjects: Asia / Pacific, Health Science, Humanitarian Crisis, India Comments Off
The city of New Delhi, the Indian capital, is reporting it has reached over 1,000 new cases of dengue fever this year. Dengue is a “vector-borne” disease, meaning it is transmitted from one host to another by way of an intermediary such as a microbe or small insect. There have only been two reported cases of deaths this year from the disease, in the capital, and authorities suggest a prolonged rainy season and consequent chronic humidity are to blame for the increase in cases.
According to The New York Times:
a survey of 3,000 people showed that 20 percent of those interviewed had the illness. He said he could not estimate the number of cases in the capital, which has a population of 5.6 million.
There are four known strains of dengue fever, which is transmitted to humans by the Aedes aegypti mosquito.
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Dr. Mahendra Dutta, from India’s National Institute of Communicable Diseases, says authorities are still trying to isolate the virus that has caused the worse outbreak of dengue hemorrhagic fever in the city since 1970. The disease is endemic to Burma, Thailand and Indonesia, and has resulted in rare outbreaks outside that region, including India and Sri Lanka in the 1960s.
In a severe outbreak in Cuba, in 1981, an estimated 340,000 cases across 4 provinces, including the capital Havana, killed 150 people. Authorities in New Delhi have been criticized for a slow response to the problem, though health officials say the disease has long been endemic to New Delhi as well as other regions of south Asia. In the state of Uttar Pradesh, not far from New Delhi, some 80,000 cases have reportedly been treated.
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