29 new dengue cases take capital's total to 527

With 29 new dengue cases reported in the capital Saturday, the total number of those affected by the vector-borne disease rose to 527, health officials said.

"There were 29 fresh cases of dengue confirmed today (Saturday). This takes the total number of cases to 527," Chief Medical Officer, Municipal Corporation of Delhi, N.K. Yadav told IANS.

With media reports alleging that the total number of dengue cases is higher than the figures provided by the civic agency, the Delhi government had Friday announced the appointment of a state nodal officer for assessing the net number of cases.

Unhappy with the modality adopted to assess total number of cases by the officer, state Health Minister Kiran Walia dismissed the officer late Friday and Saturday handed charge to health official Debashish Bhattacharya.

"The information about the dengue patients will be provided to the nodal officer with immediate effect every day by noon," Walia had said.

"The Delhi government has now made it mandatory for all public and private hospitals to give details of the dengue cases to the state nodal officer and health authorities have been asked to check, prevent and control dengue and take immediate steps to curb the menace", Bhattacharya told IANS.

Meanwhile the civic agency has laid out an action plan to take strict action to check breeding of mosquitoes that transmit the disease.

Until now, there have been two deaths due to the disease - of a 15-year-old boy and a nine-year-old boy.

Last updated on Nov 7^th, 2009 at 17:12 pm IST--IANS