NEW DELHI: The national capital once again witnessed an upward trend in dengue cases this year. Compared to last two years, this year the city recorded more cases of the vector-borne disease in September.
In 2018, Delhi had 374 dengue cases in September which came down to 190 cases in 2019 and 188 cases in 2020. This year 217 dengue cases were recorded for September, as per the civic body’s data released on Monday.
Overall 340 dengue cases have been reported in the city till October 2 2021, compared to 266 cases reported over the same period in 2020. One of the prime reasons for the surge in dengue cases are attributed to the presence of D2 0 variant which causes haemorrhagic fever, according to experts.
"This time we are getting more severe variants of dengue as the D2 O variant is far more commonly seen. We have also come across post-dengue complications like in one case of our dengue patient; he suffered from Guillain-Barre syndrome. The severities of cases are far more and the numbers are also rising," said Dr Ashutosh Shukla, Senior Director – Internal Medicine & Medical Advisor, Max Hospital, Gurugram.
Dr Jugal Kishore, Head of Medicine Department at Safdarjung Hospital said that cases of dengue are increasing as the city received lot of rainfall in September. This resulted in water collection in all places, particularly inaccessible areas.