Seasonal Variation and Dengue Burden in Paediatric Patients in New Delhi.

Objective: We conducted a study to find a relationship between main weather parameters with admission of positive dengue cases in a tertiary hospital.

Methods: Retrospective analysis was undertaken to identify epidemiological trend of dengue in 2016 from paediatric wards of a tertiary hospital in New Delhi. Data were collected on patient particulars and daily weather from January to December 2016.

Results: A total of 266 confirmed cases of dengue were considered. Relative humidity (RH) was associated with burden of positive dengue cases. On week-wise analysis, each surge of dengue admission was preceded by heavy rain 4-6 weeks earlier. Monthly averaged daily temperature range and RH were noted to have strong correlations with dengue burden, keeping an interval of 2 months in between.

Conclusions: Weather parameters seem to influence magnitude of dengue epidemic, particularly in dengue season. There is need to have an in-depth study about developing a prediction model for dengue epidemic.