Delhi reports highest dengue case count in 5 years. Symptoms, helpline number, what not to do here

livemint.com:

Delhi, according to reports, recorded a total of 187 cases were reported till 22 July – the highest for the period since 2018. The Delhi health minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Saurabh Bhardwaj on Sunday announced that the government has instructed officials to run dengue awareness campaigns in schools and among citizen to curb the spread of the vector-borne disease transmitted through mosquitoes. “Hospitals will be made ready for dengue cases.

I also had a discussion with the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) commissioner regarding the same today," Bharadwaj said. According to Delhi Municipal Corporation (MCD), the number of dengue cases reported in first three weeks of July stood at nearly 65. It was 40 in June and 23 in May.

In addition, 61 cases of malaria have been recorded in the same period, MCD report stated. Dengue is a viral infection caused by the dengue virus (DENV), transmitted to humans through the bite of infected mosquitoes. The virus is transmitted to humans through the bites of infected female mosquitoes, primarily the Aedes aegypti mosquito.

According to experts, there are four dengue virus serotypes -- DENV-1, DENV-2, DENV-3 and DENV-4. Health Minister Bharadwaj said genome sequencing of 20 dengue-positive samples in Delhi has showed that 19 of these had strain type-2. Type-2 is a severe strain, from which there is risk to patients, but the trend also suggests that there is only one strain in circulation broadly, but "we all need to be cautious", he said.