Dengue spreading to rural areas, numbers on the rise

PUNE: The number of dengue cases has surged significantly across the state this year. The dengue virus, which until now was mainly an urban phenomenon, has spread to the state’s rural interiors as well in addition to the state’s municipal corporation areas.
As per the latest report of the state health department, 798 dengue cases have been reported from the city area between January and July 7 this year, compared to 458 cases recorded during the same period last year.Similarly, the state’s rural areas have reported 485 cases this year against 260 cases recorded between January and July in 2017. Kolhapur Municipal Corporation (KMC) registered the most (430) cases, followed by Nashik (133) and Pune Municipal Corporation (89).

The health department has blamed the prevailing weather conditions. “The showers witnessed towards the end of May and early June resulted in water accumulation, creating conducive breeding grounds for Aedes aegypti — the mosquito that causes dengue and chikungunya,” said MS Diggikar, the joint director of the state health department.
“Dengue is no longer concentrated in urban areas. The dengue virus is moving towards the rural areas and this is likely to increase the magnitude of the disease in the near future. Rapid urbanisation of small towns in rural Maharashtra is a reason as well,” said an official.
The health department used to consider only dengue cases tested at designated sentinel centres, which use the high-end Elisa test. It did not consider cases reported by private hospitals, which use rapid test kits.
Ever since the PMC started collating dengue data from private hospitals and started counting cases confirmed by rapid dengue test kits, the number increased.