Mosquitoes breeding at Games' dug up sites: Ghulam Nabi Azad

With the number of dengue cases rising by the day in the national capital ahead of the Commonwealth Games, health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad today said that mosquitoes breeding at the unfinished venues of the event was one of the reasons behind the spread of the menace.

"The presence of dengue and water is strongly related. Delhi is already dug up because of the Games and it is also raining very heavily.

"Since water remains accumulated in many places, it becomes a breeding place for mosquitoes," Azad told reporters in New Delhi.

Health officials have said the number of dengue cases is highest in the last six years.

Delhi had yesterday recorded the highest single-day incidence of dengue cases being reported this season with 36 patients testing positive for the vector-borne disease, taking the total number of cases to 384.

Among this figure, 294 cases have been reported from Municipal Corporation of Delhi areas, 62 from the New Delhi Municipal Council areas and the rest were from other parts of the city and outstation cases.

Municipal Corporation of Delhi (south zone) reported the highest of 81 cases closely followed by Central Zone with 79. However, unofficial figures are reported to be much more.

With the mega event less than fifty days away, officials are more worried about the further spread of dengue as October is the month which generally sees high prevalence of the disease.

According to the statistics released by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, the number of cases till this time in 2009 was only three. The figure was 55 and 12 in the same periods in 2008 and 2007 respectively.