Mumbai: August sees rise in malaria and dengue

Though the city has been seeing a dry spell in August, the BMC's monsoon report shows a clear rise in dengue and malaria cases this month, compared to July. While private doctors have told mid-day that the highest numbers of cases they have seen are of dengue and malaria, doctors from public hospitals also said that severe leptospirosis cases were noticed after heavy rain.

From August 1 to 27, there were 959 cases of malaria, 265 cases of leptospirosis, 742 cases of dengue, 819 of gastroenteritis, 77 cases of hepatitis, 34 cases of chikungunya, and 108 of H1N1.

Stay careful in monsoon

In July, dengue cases numbered 685. There were 721 cases of malaria and 413 of leptospirosis in July. "There's still a massive surge in dengue. Following that are malaria and chikungunya cases, which constitute the majority of our patients when it comes to monsoon-related illnesses. There were also some cases of H1N1 where patients developed pneumonia," said Dr Manjusha Agarwal, senior consultant in internal medicine at Global Hospital.

Apart from the death of a senior citizen caused by dengue at the hospital, there have been no dengue deaths at Global. "Timely treatment is crucial for dengue. Most of my patients are seeking treatment during the early stages before it becomes serious. Currently, there are no dengue patients in the ICU," she said.

Doctors from state-run and BMC-run hospitals are observing a different trend. "The primary health concern in Mumbai is leptospirosis. A single heavy rainfall leads to a surge in leptospirosis patients due to waterlogging in the city," said a senior doctor from the BMC-run Cooper Hospital.

He added that this infectious disease claims the lives of many young people. "There have been some deaths due to leptospirosis at our hospital when it was raining heavily. The issue is that people often delay seeking treatment, leading to a point where the patient has to be kept in the ICU," the senior doctor explained.

‘Lepto figures unclear'

He added that BMC's numbers do not show the complete picture, as general physicians provide patients with doxycycline based on symptoms, without testing. "While it was raining, say out of 10 patients in our ICU, 3 to 4 were leptospirosis cases," the doctor said. He also noted that since Cooper is a tertiary hospital, they naturally see severe cases. "Otherwise, leptospirosis is not very problematic," he said.

Dr Sanjay Sasne, a senior resident doctor at JJ Hospital, said that whenever there's heavy rainfall, the hospital sees more admissions for leptospirosis than for other ailments. "However, there have been no leptospirosis fatalities at our hospital," he said.