Thaindian News

New Delhi, Oct 24 (IANS) The national capital reported the highest number of dengue cases in a day this year with at least 24 people testing positive for the virus, taking the total count to nearly 600, an official said.

“This is the highest number of cases reported in a day; 24 people tested positive for dengue in last 24 hours,” MCD Health Committee chairman V.K. Monga said Monday evening.

The numbers include the cases reported to the MCD from private hospitals and those from government hospitals.

Earlier, the MCD was not accounting for cases reported from private hospitals due to a difference in the method of detecting the disease. While government hospitals do the test through an Elisa test, private hospitals have been using rapid test kits.

“From an average of 10 cases per day, we are now getting over 20 cases per day as private hospitals have started reporting their dengue cases,” he said.

So far, four deaths have been reported due to dengue. An MCD official said they hoped the cases would start going down by mid-November. Last year, 6,229 dengue cases had been reported in Delhi and eight patients died.

“As winter sets in, mosquito breeding goes down, so the cases will come down,” the official said.

Last year, despite the onset of winter, eight new dengue cases had been reported, leaving health experts worried.

“There is need to take precautions against mosquito breeding and enough types of mosquito repellent should be used,” he said.

Among other mosquito related diseases, nine fresh chikungunya cases have been reported, taking the total to 29 in the capital. Five cases of Japanese Encephalitis have also been reported so far.