India | Updated Oct 23, 2006 at 08:16pm IST

Cooling weather arrests dengue

Shailesh RaiShailesh Rai, CNN-IBN

New Delhi: Falling temperatures in North India have slowed down the spread of dengue fever. The rate of increase in dengue cases in the capital is falling.

In AIIMS the number of people screened for the fever is down from 1100 a week back to just 400 on Monday. Doctors say it's all due to the dip in temperatures.

"The Aedes mosquito which transmits the disease is temperature-sensitive," says AIIMS Medical Superintendent D K Sharma.

Because the slow down in spread of dengue, people like Nirish Kumar Mahto, who had to bring his daughter to AIIMS on Diwali day, are now finding things easier to handle.

"There was a crowd inside but we didn't have any problems," said Mahto.

Despite this some patients are still unhappy. "The arrangements are not good. We have to wait for a long time," said one such patient.

But the ones who've been around for a while say there's a mark difference. "I've been here for five days. There are fewer people now," said one patient.

But there are still over 7000 people with dengue all across the country, of whom over 2000 are in Delhi. Reason enough for the MCD not to take things easy.

"We are not slacking in our efforts. We are continuing all our efforts," said Municipal Health Officer N K Yadav.

Doctors say that if the decline continues, the outbreak could end by Saturday.

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