MUMBAI: Dengue cases are spiralling not only in the state, but the city too. Several hospitals in Mumbai have registered more dengue and malaria admissions than Covid in the past month.
The BMC on Tuesday confirmed 85 cases so far in September. The numbers don’t include suspected hospitalisation or cases that don’t have lab-confirmed diagnosis. From a dozen dengue cases in June, it rose to 28 in July and 144 in August. No deaths have been reported till now. Since January, 305 dengue cases have been recorded in the city. In all of 2020, 129 cases were reported, and in 2019, 920 cases.
Dr Mangala Gomare, BMC’s executive health officer, said most of the cases have been reported from E (Mazgaon, Byculla), G south (Dharavi, Dadar, Mahim) and G north (Worli, Prabhadevi, Mahalaxmi) wards. It has become endemic in some wards and vector control is proving a challenge due to vast open spaces, such as railways tracks and yards. The BMC’s pesticide control team said breeding inside homes is a problem too.
Bombay Hospital, which has been focusing on Covid for the past 17 months, saw more dengue and malaria admissions for a month. Dr Gautam Bhansali said he has nearly 20 dengue patients. “Most have typical presentations of falling platelets and WBC counts,” he said. The good change this year is early detection, said Bhansali, since people are rushing to test for fear of Covid.
Dr Shahid Bharmare, who consults with three hospitals in the central suburbs, said they have tackled more cases of malaria, dengue and respiratory infections than Covid recently. Dr Samrat Shah, internist at Bhatia Hospital, said he is seeing three to four dengue patients every day with 50% requiring hospitalisation. “Dengue is more prevalent than malaria. Besides fever and joint pain, now it’s causing high fever with tremendous weakness and fatigue,” he said.
