Dehradun Records a Decline in Dengue Cases as Temperature Falls With Onset of Winters

The fall in temperature with the onset of winter is proving to be effective in controlling the menace of mosquito borne disease like dengue in Uttarakhand's Dehradun with the number of patients suffering from the disease showing a progressive decline.

Dengue is a viral infection, typically appearing in sub-tropical and tropical climate, which leads to a severe flue like condition. It is caused due to the bite of a mosquito, Aedes Aegypti. It generally occurs in the monsoon season, when the weather is warm and humid and provides a safe space for dengue mosquitoes to breed.

As per a report by The Pioneer, the district health authorities of Dehradun reported eight new cases of the disease on Monday. With these additional cases, the number of dengue patients in the capital city of Uttarakhand rose to 4,800. Similarly, Saturday saw only 11 cases of the disease reported by the health department.

Now these numbers are a sharp contrast to the situation about a fortnight back when the department was reporting close to 100 dengue patients daily.

The district vector-borne diseases officer, Subhash Joshi, told the daily that all these cases of the disease were reported by the laboratory of Government Doon Medical College (GDMC) hospital on Monday. The health department has set up facility of Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) test at GDMC, Coronation, Gandhi eye, SPS Rishikesh and CHC Raipur hospitals.

The laboratory of the GDMC hospital so far has tested 14,468 samples of suspected patients and out of which 1,787 have been found positive. He said that there is no need of panic for the disease but advised people to ensure that breeding grounds inside and in the vicinity of their houses is destroyed.

The first signs of the mosquito-borne disease dengue appear three to 15 days after the mosquito bite and include high fever and severe headache. It also sees severe pain behind the eyes that is apparent when trying to move the eyes. Other associated symptoms are joint pain, muscle and bone pain, rash, and mild bleeding.