The number of dengue cases reported in the State this year is the highest compared to the past four years. While around 6,183 cases have been reported from the beginning of January to September 20, the numbers never crossed 5,500 since 2015. This year, a major chunk of the cases are from urban districts of the State – Hyderabad, Rangareddy and Medchal.

Apart from the State-run hospitals in the city, a few private hospitals are running out of beds to accommodate patients who are detected with dengue.

While high number of cases are being reported every day, officials attribute it to the increased reporting of dengue cases from private hospitals. Officials from the Telangana Health Department said that they sent a communication to the private hospitals to notify all dengue cases.

According to the data on National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme (NVBDCP) website, 1,831 dengue cases were reported in 2015, 4,037 in 2016, 5,369 in 2017, and 4,592 in 2018.

Of the 6,183 cases reported this year, the highest of 1,491 cases are from Hyderabad, 1,227 from Khammam, 618 from Medchal and 502 from Rangareddy district.

Though the official records indicate zero deaths owing to the disease this year, one dengue death was confirmed in Medchal district.

After an audit into the death of a 35-year-old man from Quthbullarpur in Medchal, it was concluded that he died of dengue on September 10. Usually, dengue cases go up during monsoons. But this year the cases are so high that people say they at least know of one person in their family or among friends who has suffered from the mosquito-borne disease. However, for quite some time, the officials maintained that the number of cases in the urban districts were low compared to the past two years. As more number of people started to test positive, measures to combat dengue were put in place, review meetings were held, medical camps were organised and a fever survey was taken up. While 2,188 dengue cases were reported from January 1 to August 29, 3,995 cases were reported in a span of 22 days, i.e., from August 30 to September 20.

Additional Director of NVBDCP, G. Amar Singh, said while MAC-ELISA has to be used to confirm dengue, a few private hospitals used rapid diagnosis test for the confirmation.

“We have asked all the District Medical and Health Officers (DMHO) to go through each case reported by private hospitals to check if they have used RDT or MAC-ELISA to confirm dengue,” Mr. Singh said.