The disease that has killed at least 53 people (including 45 children) in Firozabad district in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh in the past ten days is dengue fever. The director of the Firozabad district public clinic, Dr Sangita Aneja, told TASS over the phone. Previously, Indian doctors could not determine what the children were massively infected with, 68 victims were reported.

At least 12 other people died in Mathura district and around 10 in Mainpuri district. Ms Anedja noted that doctors immediately assumed it might be a dengue fever outbreak, but needed laboratory confirmation. Now doctors are focused on battling the coronavirus, so the dengue outbreak was initially overlooked, she noted.

“Dengue fever is a disease that manifests itself every year and progresses differently each year. This year it is developing in a particularly severe form,” said Sangita Aneja. Fever is transmitted by mosquitoes, now their numbers in India have increased due to the rainy season. The exact number of fever victims has not yet been determined.

A day earlier, it was reported that at least 68 people died of an unknown viral fever in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh over the past week. Patients presented with high fever, dehydration and a sudden drop in platelet count. Some had symptoms characteristic of dengue fever (muscle pain, nausea, headache, swollen lymph nodes).