India's fight against deadly dengue outbreak

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http://www.dw.com/en/indias-fight-against-deadly-dengue-outbreak/a-18753045

India's capital New Delhi is in a grip of dengue outbreak once again, with at least 70 deaths according to unofficial accounts. Why is the South Asian country so prone to this virus, and what does it need to prevent it?

India's fight against deadly dengue outbreak
Shamil Shams, Gabriel Domínguez
01.10.2015

Five more people, including a 16-year-old boy, died in New Delhi on Tuesday, September 29, from dengue fever. This puts the death toll at over 70 in the Indian capital, however, the official count is still 17.

The number of deaths in India related to this mosquito-borne disease in 2015 has so far been around 5,000 - the highest in the past five years. Some 2,200 new dengue cases were reported last week alone, as New Delhi's hospitals continue to be flooded with patients affected by the disease.

According to government figures, some 25,000 people across the world's second-most populated country have been infected with the virus this year, but the real figure is believed to be much higher than the official account.

A study by US and Indian researchers published last October in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene found that an average of six million people a year in India had a symptomatic illness between 2006 and 2012 with dengue. The figure is nearly 300 times higher than officially reported. India is believed to have more cases of dengue than any other country in the world, with major outbreaks in recent years.