Health dept issues advisory as three die of dengue in a day

kolkata: Three people reportedly died of dengue on the same day causing a major cause of concern for the state health department that has already issued an advisory to tackle the situation.

A 26-year-old woman identified as Rinki Roy Majumdar, a resident of Bangur Avenue, was admitted to a nursing home on July 18 and died on July 21. In another case, 66-year-old Haripada Mistri, a resident of Taherpur in Nadia, died at a private hospital on EM Bypass. He was admitted to the hospital on July 19. In the third incident, one Uma Sarkar, a resident of Ranaghat in Nadia, died of dengue in Beliaghata ID Hospital. Sarkar was initially taken to Ranaghat hospital and later shifted to Kalyani JNM Hospital. As her health deteriorated further, she was finally taken to Beliaghata ID Hospital.

Meanwhile, the state health department has already issued a guideline on the platelet transfusion. As the number of dengue patients goes up, doctors find the number of cases where platelet count has declined. Irrational platelet transfusion can always cause a crisis due to adverse reactions in some patients.

The new guidelines say that the platelets will be transfused when the count slips below 10,000/cumm (if the patient is not bleeding). Transfusion can be done on an individual case-to-case basis after due assessment only when a dengue patient is found to be battling for massive systematic bleeding and the count is still above 20,000. The city hospitals and doctors are getting patients, the majority of whom are not in a serious condition. There is a general tendency for mandatory platelet transfusion among the patients admitted and this has no scientific basis. Hence, the health department has issued the advisory charting out the detailed steps that need to be taken. Senior health department officials suspect that post monsoon, cases may rise further.

Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) deputy mayor and member mayor in council (MMIC) of health department, Atin Ghosh said that the civic body is in talks with the state government to explore whether blood tests can be conducted at immigration points for people who are entering Kolkata from Bangladesh. He said that the number of dengue death cases in Bangladesh were over 170 and many municipal bodies there are calling KMC to know how it is being

tackled here.