On Tuesday, Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain too said “chikungunya is not fatal”. “Medically, there are no deaths due to chikungunya, but media is showing deaths due to this disease,” he said on the day two hospitals confirmed five chikungunya deaths in the national capital. In 2005–2006, Réunion Island in the Indian Ocean reported around 2.6 lakh chikungunya cases and 254 deaths. Till April 2015, 13.79 lakh chikungunya cases and 191 deaths attributed to the disease have been recorded in the Caribbean, Latin America, and the US. Ahmedabad (with a then population of 3.8 million) reported 60,777 suspected chikungunya cases between August and October.

Source: Hindustan Times September 14, 2016 15:36 UTC