This is not to create any sort of hysteria/ paranoia, but there have been a few instances of Dengue fever amongst family and friends in Delhi. I don't know if there are cases in other parts of the country, but three people I know have encountered the disease in the capital.

For those who do not know, Dengue is a mosquito-borne disease that is characterized by high fever and a drop in blood platlet count, amongst others. For more details you could use the following link or just google it.

http://www.medindia.net/patients/pat...g_symptoms.htm

Again, this is not to cause alarm amongst travellers in the near future, it is just a request to take all precautions against mosquito bites while travelling to Delhi. Wearing long sleeves and long pants at all times, and mosquito repellent at night might be a good idea.

For those travelling later this year-- even as early as mid-Nov., things should be much better, as the number of mosquitos decrease as colder weather arrives.

Safe travels, all.
^

I imagine dengue is low on the list as the dry season is here, but it may reappear. Dengue is, unlike malaria, transmitted by day-biting mozzies, and tends to be associated with populations of people when rains occur and water can collect in potholes, utensils left out, etc. Darker clothing attracts mosquitoes, and repellents are suggested (the US CDC recommends DEET or lemon eucalyptus oil as the two best, and anything over 30% is overkill.)

Generally speaking, dengue is not fatal (unless it turns into the occasional and rare case of dengue hemorrhagic fever,) but in the old days it was called "breakbone fever" - for very good reason.

I picked up a case of dengue 2 - 3 years ago exploring some Maya ruins near Chetumal - stupid me was wearing a black tee shirt, I was covered with mozzies; my friend was wearing white, he had a few mozzies parked on his tee shirt. There's no cure... no vaccine... and plenty of not feeling good. Much easier to avoid it.

We did travel a few times with children to India when there were min outbreaks of Dengue fever.

I too agree that it is important to not take the risk lightly. A highly under-rated protection is mosquito nets. We almost always use air conditioning, repellants and mosquito nets for protecting children. With young infants, it is easier to carry portable nets and set them up around roll-ons or cribs.

This is one area, where despite our emphasis on organic foods and avoidance of pesticides in CA, we tend to use chemical repellants in India, Mexico, Africa and other high-risk areas. (We now have West Nile virus in many parts of the US as well). WSJ once did a very detailed article on the use of various repellents and DEET still works out to be the most effective protection for outdoors.

Actually, the newest recommendations (posted on the CDC pages,) indicate similar effectiveness for DEET and lemon eucalyptus oil, and good effectiveness, though of lesser duration, for picaridin. Lemon eucalyptus oil and picaridin seem to avoid a couple of the problems DEET (N,N-diethyl-meta-toluamide,) especially in high percentage formulations (formulations in excess of 30% DEET are generally overkill,) can have, including that nasty "melting" effect on some synthetic clothing and plastic (such as some cameras,) though that could also be affected by the associated carriers, etc.

One problem I mentioned with dengue is Aedes mosquitoes are largely day biters - and due to the greater awareness of night-biting mosquito dangers (Anopheles species, transmittrs of malarial Plasmodia, are mostly night-biters,) some people don't protect enough during daylight hours. Nets and clothes that cover more are effective anytime they are used, and can be made even more effective by treating them with permethrin. Since permethrin treamtent persists even through a few launderings, it is cost-effective and can be applied to clothing and nets before leaving home.

West Nile indeed - in the Sacramento area, it appears we lost a majority of our corvid numbers last year (crows, scrub jays, yellow-billed magpies,) as corvids have little resistance to WNV.

Dengue fever outbreaks in DEL get more coverage in winter than during the monsoons. I don't keep track of the actual stats about Dengue fever, but from media "reports" this is about the time of the year where I seem to see Dengue fever incidents mentioned most often in the Indian press coverage of DEL.