Dengue cases in Gurgaon on the rise; health dept warn residents

Dengue cases in Gurgaon have shot up with the district reporting 125 cases so far. With the recent heavy spell of rain in Delhi and neighbouring areas over the past two days and the consequent water-logging, officials fear dengue cases, which started making an appearance in early August, will spike over the next couple of weeks.

According to data from the district health department, over a third of these Gurgaon dengue cases, i.e., 42, have been reported in the past two days, while two-thirds of total dengue cases were reported in the past one week. Cases are likely to increase in the coming week.

On Sunday, 21 new dengue cases were reported. Of the total cases, 32 patients are undergoing treatment at hospitals – 14 are admitted at government hospitals, while 18 are admitted to private hospitals. Over 45 dengue patients have been discharged, said health department officials to the media, adding that 48 cases did not require hospitalisation and were treated as out-patients.

The maximum number of dengue cases have been reported from areas under the Wazirabad primary health centre.

Also read: West Bengal reports 548 more dengue cases

Dengue larvae breed in pools of fresh water

Two days of heavy rain left Gurgaon waterlogged, with the city receiving 29mm of rain between 8.30 am and 5.30 pm on Friday (September 23) alone. According to the district health officials, normally the heavy rainfall washes out the larvae and breeding may not happen.

In many places however, people don’t clean up after the rains and the fresh water gets accumulated, especially in old containers on rooftops or unused coolers and the dengue larvae can breed causing a sudden surge in dengue cases. Incidentally, the dengue cases in Gurgaon district were 327 dengue cases last year, which was the highest in the past five years.

However, data showed that no dengue-related deaths have been reported in the city this year. Meanwhile, in Delhi, 396 cases of dengue have been reported so far this year, said the Municipal Corporation of Delhi data. A total of 152 dengue cases have been recorded till September 17.

Efforts to contain dengue cases in NCR

The district health department have identified 18 hotspots from where about 70 per cent of all dengue cases in NCR were reported. To control the spread of dengue, the district administration is implementing various measures such as fogging and anti-larval activities. One ward has been reserved for dengue patients at the civil hospital, said media reports quoting district health officials.

Also read: Dengue cases on the rise in Kerala’s Ernakulam district

The field staff members are also carrying out house-to-house source reduction activities. They are trying to identify and eliminate mosquito breeding sites by emptying water from containers. Over 5,000 notices have been issued for the release of Gambusia fish in various water bodies, said officials, according to media reports in leading dailies.

Care is also been taken in dengue prone areas such as Nithari and Sadarpur, where more dengue cases are reported every year. In Nithari, many residents living in small houses  use coolers, where the maximum breeding occurs causing dengue. The authorities are also conducting awareness drives on dengue cases and urging residents to make sure that there is no water accumulation in their surroundings. A heavy penalty will be imposed if mosquito breeding is detected, said the officials.

What people need to do 

The aedes mosquito that causes dengue is a sophisticated insect that breeds only in clean water that usually accumulates inside homes. Also, it doesn’t fly too high or too far from where it breeds. This is why people should be very careful and not let water accumulate in balconies, coolers, buckets, pots and feeding trays.

Dengue cases in Gurgaon were 452 in 2015 but the cases dropped in 2016 to 86 and 2017 to 66. The dengue cases went marginally high in 2018 to 93. In 2020, 51 cases were reported but last year Gurgaon dengue cases again rose to a high of 327.