New Delhi, India – India’s health minister said Thursday that the death toll from an outbreak of dengue fever had risen to 38 as hospitals struggle to cope with an influx of patients.
In southern India, meanwhile, a rare mosquito-borne viral fever known as chikungunya killed four people overnight, bringing the death toll from that disease in the state of Kerala to 75 in the past month, said the state’s health ministry.
The dengue outbreak has largely hit the country’s north, and 2,900 suspected cases have been reported in the past six weeks, with 38 of those infected dying, said Health Minister Anubani Ramadoss.
Relatives of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh may be among those hit, with two of his grandsons and a son-in-law hospitalized in New Delhi with dengue symptoms, said Shakti Gupta, a spokesman for the All India Institute of Medical Sciences.
“The condition of all the three patients is stable. Their symptoms are being monitored and assessed,” Gupta said.
Female Aedes mosquitoes transmit dengue. Symptoms include high fever, joint pain, headache and vomiting. It is fatal in rare cases.
India’s annual outbreak normally dies off with the end of the mosquito breeding period in November.
