INTRODUCTION: Dengue is a vector-borne disease that is a major public health threat globally. The number of dengue cases reported to WHO increased over 8 fold over the last two decades, from 505,430 cases in 2000 to 5.2 million in 2019. Reported deaths between the year 2000 and 2015 increased from 960 to 4032, affecting mostly younger age group. The total number of cases seemingly decreased during years 2020 and 2021, as well as for reported deaths. However, the data is not yet complete and COVID-19 pandemic might have also hampered case reporting in several countries. This record based study was planned to study the annual and seasonal trend of dengue fever and effect of COVID-19 on reporting of dengue fever.
METHODOLOGY: The record based analysis was done by collecting data from the CMHO after taking informed consent from the Chief Medical and Health Officer, Jaipur. Previous five years (2017-2021) data was collected to study the annual and seasonal trends of dengue in Jaipur. Descriptive statistics was expressed in percentage and proportions. Data was entered in Microsoft excel and analysed using epi info version 7.2.2.6 (software).
RESULTS: The number of cases increased from 2017 to 2018 with a slight decrease in 2019. There is sudden decrease in the number of cases from 2019 to 2020 which clearly shows the effect of COVID-19 pandemic. It was noticed that the number of cases start increasing from August and reach a peak in October and then start decreasing.
CONCLUSION: Dengue is present through-out the year but becomes a public health problem in third quarter of year. Underreporting of dengue cases and similar clinical presentation as COVID 19 made situation more difficult in its diagnosis and management that ultimately results in less cases reported in 2020.
 
