Dengue spread in north India, PM's grandsons in hospital

Indian capital recorded another dengue death of a 12-year-old girl Wednesday, pulling the toll to 13 while the disease is spreading in north India, local media reported.

According to local TV channel CNN-IBN, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's two grandsons were also diagnosed with dengue fever at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Wednesday.

Seventeen-year-old Rohan and eleven-year-old Madhav were sent to hospital with high fever and other symptoms of the disease. Rohan was admitted last evening.

Doctors confirmed that both had contracted the viral disease spread by Aedes mosquito which breeds in unhygienic conditions.

Rohan and Madhav live at the Prime Minister's official 7 Race Course Residence in New Delhi.

The capital city has recorded 512 cases of dengue patients so far.

In Jaipur, capital of west Indian state Rajastan, over 300 people came to SMS hospital every day complaining of high fever and around 10 percent of them report symptoms of dengue.

The situation is worse when the hospitals faced acute shortage of blood.

One death was also reported in Pune, an industrial city of west Indian state Maharashtra, on Saturday.

North Indian state Bihar reported at least four cases of dengue while one were found in India-controlled Kashmir.

"We will be meeting with the health ministers of the dengue affected states on Oct. 5," said Anbumani Ramadoss, Minister of Health and Family Welfare.

The Delhi government has employed 2,000 more people to control the outbreak of the disease.

But the central government of India insisted that the outbreak has not been an epidemic yet.

Source: Xinhua