Dengue is suspected of killing dozens, as the Indian state suffers the worst outbreak in recent years

NEW DELHI, Sept. 13 (Reuters) – An outbreak of dengue fever has been suspected of killing dozens of people in northern India, Uttar Pradesh, since early September, and authorities have launched a campaign to destroy the mosquito breeding areas.

Dinesh Kumar Premi, the chief medical officer of Firozabad, the state’s hardest-hit district, told Reuters that 58 people, many of them children, had died in his district alone, fearing Uttar Pradesh was in the midst of the worst dengue outbreak. in years.

“We are taking preventative measures and 95 health camps in the district have been operating to contain the spread of this fever,” Premi said.

A government official said, on condition of anonymity, that many children could have died when their poor parents first took them to fake doctors, or vests, before their condition worsened.

Although mosquito-borne dengue is the suspected cause of the outbreak of deadly viral fever in Uttar Pradesh, it has only been confirmed as the cause of death in three cases, but an audit is being conducted to determine if it has culpa, Ved Vrat. Singh, Uttar Pradesh’s top public health official, said.

Firozabad authorities have set up teams to check for waterlogging in homes and fumigate at-risk areas, while they have also released thousands of Gambusia or mosquito fish into bodies of water to eat mosquito larvae. .

Dengue deaths nationwide fell to a 56-year low last year. Uttar Pradesh recorded 42 deaths from dengue in 2016, the highest since 2015.

Written by Krishna N. Das; Edited by Simon Cameron-Moore

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