Australia, has in an update to its travel advisory to India, warned of a worsening of an outbreak of dengue fever during the 3-14 October Commonwealth Games in Delhi.

The potentially fatal disease is passed on to humans by mosquitoes which breed in swarms in the vicinity of places like Delhi's athletes village and Games venues due flooding during monsoon rains.

With most of the atheletes' village being flooded, the Delhi government has asked the army for help to rid the floodwaters.

Measures aimed at preventing the mosquitoes from breeding have proved futile according to the Municipal Council of Delhi (MCD).

According to Australian Commonwealth Games Association chief executive Perry Crosswhite, the dengue fever outbreak had been taken a serious note of by the Australian authorities and whatever needed to be done with respect to the Australian contingent's visit would be done.

During their visit Australian athletes would stay at a village located on the riverbed of the Yamuna River, which happens to be a natural habitat for mosquitoes.

Hospitals in the area have been reporting more than 50 suspected cases of dengue fever each day with upwards of 1000 confirmed cases.

Games organisers, have since last week, been spraying a colourless synthetic pyrethroid paint at the villages and Games' venue to repel mosquitoes in addition to fogging the village with anti-mosquito spray twice daily. In addition gambusia fish have been released in the waterways.

Meanwhile, according to officials of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, the site was a 'poor selection' for hosting athletes from 71 countries, given that the spot is surrounded by the Yamuna river on three sides which makes it particularly susceptible for spread of the disease.

The Delhi government has enlisted the support of military experts and doctors from the National Institute of Malaria Research and the National Vector-Borne Disease Control Programme to secure the site from the mosquitoes.

Health minister Kiran Walia yesterday visited the Village along with experts and representative of the civic bodies to ascertain further measures that could be taken to counter the malaria and dengue menace at the site.

She said that work was being done on a war footing in the area and the strength of fumigators and dengue breeding checkers at the site had also been increased.

According to MCD health official Dr V K Monga, the Games Village was a priority at present.

Meanwhile an MCD survey has found the Village was most vulnerable, as with the monsoon nearing its end, water would start to recede in the Yamuna, creating pools of stagnant water, that could serve as perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes, according to Monga.