According to AIIMS report released on Thursday, a total of 96 patients were admitted to the hospital, of which 56 have been discharged.
Advertisement
Ganga Ram Hospital has so far reported five deaths due to chikungunya. Out of the total patients, 70% belonged to Uttar Pradesh, 10% to Bihar and rest to Delhi, it said. People die directly of dengue.
Terming the process as trigger mechanism, experts – treating chikungunya, dengue and malaria patients, also categorically stated that no one dies of chikungunya, but if a person has a history of a chronic disease then it may get aggravated or reactivated by the chikungunya virus, leading to death.
In a letter to Nadda, Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain said the Delhi government was making best efforts to coordinate with the union Health Ministry and its hospitals to tackle the outbreak of dengue and chikungunya. “At least 1,500 beds are vacant at hospitals under Delhi government, it will be very wrong to say that patients are denied bed”.
“People of Delhi have no need to panic”.
Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda yesterday said he would convene a meeting with state health ministers of neighbouring states on Friday to review the situation.
In its official data till September 11, the MCD had put the number of dengue deaths in Delhi at four this season.
The first dengue death in the national capital was reported in July, at the Lok Nayak Jai Prakash (LNJP) Hospital, of a girl from Jafrabad in northeast Delhi.
Jain, who has inspected over a dozen hospitals since returning from Goa, has stressed that patients from areas outlying Delhi were visiting Delhi hospitals, putting pressure on the medical infrastructure in the national capital, particularly in government hospitals. And, this couldmean the number of cases in Delhi could be much higher thancurrently reported”, he said.Arun R Kaushik, specialist in microbiology andgeriatrics, says, “Chikungunya virus is transmitted by thebite of aedes albopictus and aedes aegypti mosquitoes.
A 75-year-old man from south Delhi succumbed to chikungunya complications at a city hospital on Thursday, taking to 12 the number of fatalities due to the disease.
In the middle of reports of the tenth death from the vector-borne disease, the inbound tourist operators are keeping close watch on the situation.
Advertisement
Speaking to the media after the meeting, Mr. Nadda said: “We have sought a detailed report from the Delhi government (regarding chikungunya deaths) as to what has been the co-morbidity in these death cases and its details”. As many as 14 people have died so far due to chikungunya-related illnesses with more than 1,000 cases being reported across the capital city. “The number of rising cases of chikungunyathis year after the 2006 spike could be due to an evolution inits strain”, National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme (NVBDCP) Director A C Dhariwal said.Experts also feel that north Indians could be succumbingto the vector-borne disease because of their “low immunity” to it.
