File photo: All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi.
With dengue menace refusing to relent and hospitals in the city having a huge rush of patients, AIIMS Director said the disease will persist till November and then till will decline.
"Until October 15, we will get more cases. After that the temperature will cool down and November onwards we will see the decline and naturally in December, January, it would disappear.
"There is humidity, temperature and the total environment that the mosquito gets to breed and which starts with the monsoon setting in. So the cases have started coming in from mid-June onwards and after that there has been a surge.
September has been bad from that perspective," AIIMS Director MC Mishra said.
He, however, urged people not to panic citing the mortality in dengue is very low and that people should start taking enough fluids if they contract the disease.
"If you look at the hospitalised patients, who are selected patients, sick patients, even in those, the mortality has been really low and it is in the range of 7-10 per cent (in case of sick patients).
"The mortality in dengue is is less than half per cent and even less than that. So people must have the confidence that most dengue fever is a common fever which is mild in nature and majority of people will recover from it. But, in occasional cases it does turn into a dengue shock syndrome or Hemorrhagic fever which is far more tragic and that takes the toll," he said.
Meanwhile, experts at AIIMS have advised people not to fall for "herbal cures" citing there is no scientific proof that they help fight the disease even as the demand for giloy and papaya leaves, aloe vera and goat milk shot up in Delhi with dengue patients opting for these to increase platelet count.
"We don't recommend these 'herbal cures' like aloe vera, papaya leaf and goat milk. We would also advise people not to scramble for these as there is no scientific evidence or research based on which it can be conclusively said that these herbs and fruits can be effective in the treatment of dengue," said SK Sharma, Head of Medicine Department at AIIMS.
Dengue till now has affected close to 4000 people and claimed 28 lives unofficially as the official figure of death toll which is 17.