Dengue alert in Nagpur : More than half cases surface in Sept alone!

Nagpur: As monsoon draws to an end, here comes a sign of worry in the otherwise healthy pockets of Nagpur. The onset of winter has resulted into a sudden outbreak of mosquito population. This has only multiplied the dengue effect in the city.

During the last one month there has been a significant increase in the number of dengues cases. Official record shows 61 positive cases were reported between September 1 and October 7. This has taken the total number of dengue cases till October 7 to 105. Remarkably more than half of the cases were reported in the month of September only.

This trend has brought clear signs of worries in the NMC health department, which despite all its efforts failed to contain the spread of dengue.

The data shows that between January 1 and August 31, 44 positive cases of dengue had been reported. The figure was 46 for September and 15 cases were reported from October 1-7 alone. According to official records, there have been no deaths due to dengue this year.

At 90, the cases reported between January 1 and September 30 this year are fewer than in the same period last year, when the figure stood at 103. The figures for both 2015 and 2016 are not even half of that for 2014, when there was a dengue outbreak and 208 cases were reported between January 1 and September 30.

However the silver lining is that not a single positive case of chikungunya has been reported in the city in the past four years.

Since the past few years, Nagpur Municipal Corporation’s malaria and filaria department conducts a door-to-door survey across all households in 10 zones to check for stagnant water which can be a breeding ground for mosquitoes.