The number of dengue cases is rising alarmingly in the state capital, with the chief commissioner of Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), Tushar Girinath, also testing positive.
The worst affected areas are Mahadevapura and the east zone. Cases breached 1,000 in June, representing a two-fold increase over last year. Nearly 2,500 cases have been reported in the past six months. Dengue has four strains. Once infected, a person develops long-term immunity from that strain, but is susceptible to the other three. Thus, potentially, a person can be infected four times in a lifetime, with each attack being more severe than the earlier one. While most people recover within a week, a severe form of dengue, which is a mosquito-borne illness, can cause internal bleeding, sudden drop in blood pressure, and in some cases, even death.
Thus, it is important not to ignore symptoms like fever, bleeding from the gums and nose, persistent vomiting, difficulty in breathing, fatigue, and restlessness.