Mumbai: Getting 5-6 cases of dengue every week, say experts

A BMC worker conducts fogging at the Sher-e-Punjab Colony in Andheri East in March last year. File pic

While the city continues to grapple with rising Covid cases and spread of the Omicron variant, data from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) shows an increase in vector-borne diseases like dengue and chikungunya as compared to last year. Typically, dengue cases rise in the months of September and October. However, doctors said that the cases rose in those two months, saw a dip post that and again increased in December following the unseasonal rain.

So far this year, the civic body has reported 865 dengue cases. The same last year was 129. December saw 29 dengue cases. The city has also reported a number of chikungunya cases this year. While in 2020 there were no chikungunya cases, this year there have been 76 so far. Dr Anil Ballani, general physician at Lilavati Hospital, said that they have been witnessing a rise in vector-borne infections since the early weeks of December. "We have been seeing about five to six cases of dengue every week. Almost 30 per cent of them has been hospitalised," he said.

Dr Ballani, however, added that none of them faced the problem of fall in platelet count, which is commonly associated with dengue. "Fortunately, blood transfusion wasn't required in any of the cases. Initially, a few of them were not responding to medicines and some developed gastro issues," he said. "We have asked the pesticide control officials to focus on inspection and treatment to reduce the spread of breeding grounds of mosquitoes," said a senior BMC official.

Dr Paritosh Baghel, senior consultant, internal medicine, SL Raheja Hospital said the rise in vector-borne diseases might be because of the extended monsoon and the rain that Mumbai received towards the end of November and early December. "We did see a good number of cases of malaria, dengue and chikungunya this year. At present, we are seeing more malaria cases. In the last one week, there has been a drop in dengue cases," he added.

29
No. of dengue cases reported in December till now