29 new dengue cases in Delhi take total to 812

With 29 cases of dengue confirmed Sunday, the total number of people affected by the vector borne disease in the national capital has touched 812, a health official said.

"In the past 24 hours, we have confirmed 29 new cases of dengue in Delhi," Debashish Bhattacharya, the state nodal officer for dengue cases, told IANS.

Bhattacharya also said that the health department had issued an order to all government-run hospitals and an advisory to private hospitals on better identification of suspected dengue patients.

“We issued an order yesterday (Saturday) that patients that come in with dengue symptoms must be admitted and given treatment. If the hospital feels it cannot treat patients then it must stabilise condition of serious patients before transfer,” Bhattacharya explained.

He added that 95 percent of dengue patients so far had not required blood transfusion. “Most can be stabilised with two or three bottles of saline or intravenous fluids.”

Until now, there have been two dengue deaths reported - one of a nine-year old boy and the other one of a 15-year-old boy.

Contradicting the media reports of two fresh dengue deaths, the health department has said that the two deaths were of one person from Bulandshahr in Uttar Pradesh and the other was not a confirmed dengue patient.

With the onset of winter in the national capital, the health department is expecting that cases of dengue will fall since the carrier Aedes mosquitoes will stop breeding, Bhattacharya said.

Last updated on Nov 15^th, 2009 at 16:53 pm IST--IANS