Another dengue death at AIIMS, toll 20

New Delhi: Dengue has claimed one more life in the Capital’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences, taking the death toll in the city to 20.

A total of 173 confirmed cases of dengue have been reported from AIIMS with 41 new admissions to the hospital on Monday.

Nearly 900 cases have been reported from Delhi and the National Capital Region so far.

Hospitals in Delhi - including AIIMS - are fast running short of resources and facilities and the doctors are hard-pressed as patients kept pouring in through Sunday night.

The casualty ward at AIIMS has been converted into a dengue screening ward.

Uttar Pradesh, where seven people have already died of dengue, the number of suspected cases of viral disease has shot up to 214 even as the state government issued strict directives to the health and civic authorities to check spread of the disease, official sources here said.

Separate wards have been set up in government hospitals besides emergency services were made available in all the hospitals to deal with the situation effectively, Mishra told newsmen here adding, that there was not dearth of funds for carrying out fogging and other measures.

The kit for determining dengue has also been made available for providing prompt treatment to the patients, he said.

Necessary directives have already been issued to respective chief medical officers to undertake fogging and sprinkling of insecticides.

Health Department officials have been asked to collect information about dengue patients in different parts of the State and take prompt action to control the situation, sources said.

People are being apprised with the various precautions needed to be taken to check the disease and asked to consult doctors instead of going for self-treatment, sources added.

A person died of dengue in Andhra Pradesh, where five other cases were reported in the past four days, officials said.

A man affected by the viral fever in Anantapur district was taken to a private hospital at Bangalore where he died yesterday, Director of Health P Venkateswara Rao said.

Of the five reported cases, two were registered in a private hospital here while two were recorded in West Godavari district and one in Srikakulam district, Rao said.