Gurugram, India — When Nitin Sharma developed a high fever in May, dengue was the last thing on his mind.The monsoon was still weeks away. Like many Indians, the 32-year-old software engineer from Gurugram, a business district outside New Delhi, had grown up believing dengue was a disease that arrived with the rains and disappeared once the monsoon season ended.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of listSo when headaches, severe body aches and fatigue forced him to visit a private hospital in Gurugram, he assumed he was suffering from a routine viral infection.“I thought it would be some seasonal fever,” Sharma said. “Nobody in my family even considered dengue because it wasn’t monsoon season yet.”A blood test revealed otherwise. Doctors diagnosed him with dengue fever.For nearly two weeks, Sharma remained away from work as weakness and fatigue persisted long after the fever subsided.“What shocked me most was the timing,” he said. “Earlier, if someone had a fever in April, dengue would have been the last thing we thought about.”Growing shift in disease patternDoctors across India say Sharma’s experience is becoming increasingly common.Hospitals in several states began reporting dengue infections weeks before the monsoon officially reached the southern state of Kerala last week, reflecting what scientists describe as a growing shift in the behaviour of one of the country’s most widespread mosquito-borne diseases.Health experts warn that rising temperatures, erratic rainfall and rapid urbanisation are helpin …
