In this Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2015 photo, a municipality worker uses a machine to fog for mosquitoes at a neighborhood in New Delhi, India. At dusk, the foggers come out to spray their sticky-sweet clouds of diesel smoke and insecticide across the Indian capital. Efforts to stop mosquitoes from spreading dengue fever in New Delhi have failed to keep the city from its biggest outbreak in almost two decades: more than 10,190 registered cases, including 32 deaths. (AP Photo/Saurabh Das)
NEW DELHI ( INDIA) -- Efforts to prevent mosquitoes from spreading dengue fever in the Indian capital have failed to keep the metropolis from its biggest outbreak of the disease in nearly two decades. So far, more than 10,190 cases have been registered, including 32 fatalities. Experts blamed health authorities for being slow on both medical response and prevention work.
They said that the Delhi municipal government should have anticipated a longer mosquito-breeding season months ago, when it was predicted by weather forecasters that this year's monsoon will go beyond September.
Some officials dismissed the notion that the high number of cases is a result of neglect. Instead, they claimed that the city is just conducting more tests. In addition, some cases go unreported because some patients don't seek medical treatment, while others consult doctors who don't report cases.
Health authorities also stressed that while this year's number of dengue cases has nearly topped the 1996 record of 10,252 infections, the death toll is significantly lower than the 423 who succumbed to the disease 19 years ago.
Three weeks into October, health officials are still reporting new cases. The Holy Family Hospital alone stated that on average, it was still detecting 27 dengue cases a day. The figure is actually down from a September peak of about 75 cases a day. - ubalert
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