HARYANA WITNESSES 10,139 DENGUE CASES IN 2021, HIGHEST IN 7 YEARS

Dengue, a vector Borne Disease (VBD) continues to affect Haryana adversely as 7 fresh deaths were reported this year. It is an alarming situation as the dengue caused casualties after seven years. Before this, 13 patients died of the disease in 2015 and no casualty was reported after that time excluding the present year. Besides, 10139 people were affected so far in 2021 setting a new record that has forced the health department to come up with a foolproof strategy to tackle the fatal disease. The senior officials of the department are mulling over all possible aspects to control the disease but the efforts made so far do not seem enough as the disease has rapidly spread in all regions of the state adding to the woes of the health wing.

In wake of the spurt in fresh cases, a team of health experts of the Central government had recently visited the most affected districts including Fatehabad, Panchkula, Sirsa, and many more to have an insight into the factors responsible for the spike. The statistics revealed that out of the total 10139 patients, nearly two-thirds of the total patients were reported in the government health institutions. As many as 6528 and 3611 patients were found infected in the government and private hospitals respectively. Besides, it also came to light that more than 100 cases continued to surface a day several times which is a matter of serious concern.

While reacting to the increase in fresh cases, Rakesh Saini, Deputy Director, Vector-Borne Disease said that given the continuous spurt in new cases, the health department taking the necessary steps to bring down the new cases, and apart from this, proper arrangements are being made in the hospitals to provide the timely treatment to the patients suffering from the disease.

After having a glance at the statistics, what also comes to the surface is that as many as 9921 people were infected by the disease in 2015 to be followed by 2494 and 4550 cases in 2016 and 2017. After that, a total of 1936 cases were reported in 2018 to be followed by 1207 and 1377 cases of the disease in 2019 and 2020. In this series, it is worth mentioning that the 6 six districts in the state do exist among the most affected regions. Fatehabad district occupies on the top with 968 cases while Panchkula and Sirsa remain in second and third positions with 852 cases, each. Besides, as many as 829 and 792 people were affected in Kaithal and Sonipat districts so far. Apart from this, Ambala, Charkhi Dadri, Jind, Nuh, Rohtak, and Yamunanagar districts continue to suffer from the infection at a large scale.