Officials on Tuesday reported that hospitals in New Delhi are battling with a huge rush of dengue patients, with some opening their reserved COVID-19 wards for patients of the mosquito-borne disease.
Hospitals in India capital, New Delhi are receiving dozens of dengue cases on a daily basis, even more than the COVID-19 infections.
Rajni Khedwal, medical superintendent at the Swami Dayanand hospital said “the current situation of dengue is very bad in Delhi.
“We are getting many cases of fever, almost 250 to 300 cases of fever, and out of that 70 to 80 per cent are dengue cases’’.
According to doctors at the government-run Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan (LNJP) hospital, 20 to 25 new dengue patients are hospitalised every day, with 40 to 50 suspected cases of fever.
Arun Kumar, a 14-year-old boy, lies motionless on a bed in LNJP hospital as his blood platelet count has dropped drastically to 10,000.
Last week, his family brought him to the LNJP hospital after he complained of severe chills and a high fever.
Doctors diagnosed the teenager with dengue.
Kumar is among the 7,127 cases of dengue fever reported so far this year in New Delhi.
At least 10 people have died of the disease in the Indian capital, the highest number of fatalities due to dengue in the city since 2017.
The local government directed the hospital authorities to use the beds reserved for COVID-19 patients for dengue patients.
Dengue is a mosquito-borne viral disease that has rapidly spread in all regions in recent years.
Dengue virus is transmitted by female Aedes mosquitoes.
Health experts say those who become infected with the virus a second time are at a significantly greater risk of developing severe disease.
It causes fever, body ache, nausea, vomiting and internal bleeding or a fatal drop in blood pressure in severe cases.
