65-yr-old suffering from chikungunya dies at Ganga Ram hospital
13 Sep 2016 12:21 AM GMT
Incidentally, one suspected chikungunya death has also been reported at the AIIMS, but hospital authorities on Monday said they have not yet confirmed it. “We are yet to confirm if the death was due to chikungunya. We are trying to do so, but till then it is a suspected case,” AIIMS spokesperson Amit Gupta said.
The victim who died on Monday — R Pandey — is a resident of Ghaziabad and was shifted to Ganga Ram Hospital from Yashodra Hospital in Ghaziabad in a deteriorating health condition on September 10.
“The patient was under the monitoring of Pooja Khosla, senior consultant at the medicine department. Though we tried treating him, he succumbed to the complications due to chikungunya on Monday at 4.30 am,” said a senior official of the hospital. According to him, the patient died of chikungunya with sepsis, a life-threatening illness caused by the body’s response to an infection.
“This case was different. In this case the reports have revealed high titre positive, which means the strain of the chikungunya was very strong unlike before,” said the official.
The case was reported after All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) had witnessed five deaths due to dengue and one from chikungunya since September 1, even as the premier hospital continues to get hundreds of patients suffering from the vector-borne diseases. “AIIMS has witnessed a total of six deaths due to vector-borne diseases this month. Since September 1, five of the patients have died due to dengue and one from chikungunya,” a senior official at AIIMS said on condition of anonymity.
According to the official, the last death was of a 30 year-old man, who tested positive for dengue in the first week of the month. He died on September 9. “The victim succumbed due to complications from dengue on September 9. He was a resident of east Delhi,” said the official.
Last week, over 400 patients tested positive for chikungunya at AIIMS, taking the cases being treated by the hospital alone to nearly 900. Lalit Dar of AIIMS’ Department of Microbiology said: “Cases testing positive for chikungunya are rising. Till now some 885 samples have tested positive for dengue, of which over 400 are new ones in the last two weeks.” However, according to the civic bodies’ data, the total number of chikungunya cases in Delhi stood at only 560 till September 3, while the total dengue cases were 771.
Following the rise in vector-borne diseases, which also includes malaria, the Cabinet Secretary has directed the health authorities at the central and state governments and municipal corporation level to increase public awareness, with the aim of preventing the disease and also ensure availability of medicines. Among those affected are a number of doctors of both central and Delhi government hospitals.
Safdarjung Hospital officials said 10-12 senior faculty members have tested positive for chikungunya, while at least 25 junior doctors, both senior and junior residents, are suffering from chikungunya and dengue.
Dengue, chikungunya continue to sting city
There seems to be no end to the increasing number of cases of chikungunya and dengue in the national Capital. Last week, chikungunya cases saw a sharp rise of nearly 90 per cent, putting up a figure of around 1,000 this season.
According to a Municipal report released on Sunday, at least 1,057 cases of this vector-borne disease have been recorded till September 10. Like wise, at least 1,158 cases of dengue have also been reported with nearly 390 of them being recorded in the first 10 days, marking a rise of over 50 per cent from the previous count, according to a municipal report released on Monday.
Over 770 cases were reported till September 3 this season. Out of the total number of cases, August alone has accounted for 652.
Besides, malaria too has claimed two lives this season and at least 21 people in Delhi have been diagnosed with malarial fever. Safdarjung Hospital which received over a 1,000 patients in its fever clinics recently, has reported as many as 328 dengue cases and 532 cases of chikungunya this season.
The South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) which compiles the vector-borne disease cases report on behalf of all civic bodies in New Delhi, had till September 3, pegged the total number of chikungunya cases this season at 560.
At AIIMS, which gets blood test samples from several cities, including Delhi and neighbouring regions, hundreds of chikungunya samples have been tested positive.
“At our laboratories, 885 chikungunya blood test samples have tested positive in the last two months (July-August). Cases are rising and more and more people are getting affected,” Lalit Dar of Department of Microbiology at AIIMS said.
The 497 fresh cases of chikungunya reported in the last week amount to a rise of nearly 90 per cent from its count by the civic body on September 3. Out of the total cases this season, 202 has been recorded in South Delhi, followed by 148 in North Delhi and 57 in East Delhi, the report said.
For SDMC, which reported the highest number of people diagnosed with chikungunya, its four zone recorded cases as follows — West (56), Central (57), South (56) and Najafgarh (33). As many as 540 cases have been recorded from areas outside the jurisdiction of the three Municipal Corporations. A total of 110 cases of chikungunya have been reported from outside of Delhi.
According to SDMC, 64 cases of chikungunya were reported last year.
According to official figures released by Municipal Corporations, 387 people were suffering from dengue in September month only and four people have died of the fever this year.
Last year, 15,867 people were affected by the disease out of whom 60 succumbed to the fever. This year, 652 confirmed cases of dengue have come to the fore. Chikungunya outbreak has taken a huge toll on Delhiites. The number of people getting affected with the fever has reached 1,724 where as last year only 64 cases had come to light.
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