The dengue menace continued to play havoc in the national capital with the cases nearing 2000 this season threatening to mar the much-hyped Commonwealth Games slated for early next month and pressing the entire health machinery into activities to contain it.

With many participating nations of the Games expressing concern on dengue and other health issues, the authorities are into a high-voltage firefighting mode, even without sparing the CDSCO. As per the latest official records, the number of cases of this vector-borne disease has nearly touched 2000, with five deaths reported so far. The city has recorded over 700 dengue cases in the last 10 days. The civic bodies are blaming incessant rains and stagnation of water at Commonwealth Games construction sites for the rapid increase in dengue cases this season.

Interestingly, the disease has peaked early this time. During the same period last year, the number of cases of the vector-borne disease in the city was only 13 while it was 241 and 52 in the corresponding periods in 2008 and 2007. Many countries have sought information on the situation from the organizers of the Commonwealth Games starting from October 3.

Intense and rigorous vector control measures have been launched to tackle the problem of dengue by the authorities who claimed that the container index (measure of mosquito breeding- no. of container found positive for larval breeding per 100 container examined) in some areas particularly CWG stadia and games village.

Dengue cases are being reported from Delhi every year since long. An outbreak of dengue was reported during 1996 with 10,252 cases and 423 deaths. Thereafter upsurge of cases was observed in 2003 and 2006. During 2009, total 1,153 cases of Dengue and 3 deaths were reported. In 2010, cases started rising from 2nd week of July. Since then a rising trend has been observed till last week of August with an average 60-70 cases reported on daily basis. The pace of rising trend of the cases observed in the past has declined. Till 9th September 1580 cases and 4 deaths have been reported, according to the official explanation.

In comparison to the earlier years, this year the occurrence of cases started early and risen very fast. Probable reasons may be due to early, heavy (455.1mm in August and 117.9 mm upto 9 Sept.) and continuous rains this year (21 rainy days in July, 23 rainy days in August and 8 rainy days upto 9 Sept.2010). The breeding of Aedes mosquito increased manifold therefore, the risk of transmission of the disease also increased, official sources said.

However, the almost entire health machinery including those from CDSCO has been pressed into different services related to the Games. From hospitals to the different wings of the CDSCO including the DCGI office have felt the pressure of additional workload, it is viewed.