The national capital is seeing an alarming rise in the number of dengue cases, with 18 new cases reported Thursday. This takes the total number of confirmed cases of the vector-borne disease to 320, health officials said here.

'The number of dengue cases is rising. But considering that October is a time when dengue generally spreads fast because of the ideal atmosphere, the numbers are still lower than last year,' said N.K. Yadav, chief medical officer of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD).

On an average there have been 18-20 cases reported every day in the past few days, he added.

Until now, there have been two deaths reported because of the disease - a 15-year-old boy and a nine-year-old boy.

Delhi Health Secretary J.P. Singh said: 'The number of dengue cases in the capital is rising. However, the numbers are almost one-fifth of what was last year. We are taking all precautionary measures to check the spread of the disease like awareness programmes and doing door-to-door checks to stop mosquito breeding.'

However, doctors from private hospitals and pathological laboratories said that the number of dengue cases is much more than what has been reported.

An official of Dr. Dang's, a pathological laboratory said: 'All the numbers that the MCD has been quoting is only of those cases which have been confirmed in government hospitals. But if you go to any private hospital you will see that they are choc-a-bloc with dengue affected patients.'