E-Paper
National Health Profile: City tops UTs in meningococcal meningitis death count in ’18
Inflammation of membranes that cover the brain and spinal cord had caused 10 deaths in the city last year
As many as 10 deaths were caused due to meningococcal meningitis in Chandigarh, the highest among the Union Territories (UTs), in 2018, according to the National Health Profile 2019 released on Thursday. Meningococcal meningitis is a rare but serious bacterial infection which causes inflammation of membranes that cover the brain and spinal cord.
The city witnessed 64 cases of the infection in 2017, however, it caused no deaths. The figure dropped to 37 in 2018, of which 10 had died. The disease caused three deaths in Delhi and no death was recorded in any other UT.
Dr Sonu Goel, a community health professor at the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education, said though the deaths due to the disease are not uncommon, there is a need to investigate further whether there was an outbreak in the city, besides checking the time and area from where the deaths were recorded.
Director health services Dr G Dewan said they will check the instances and respond accordingly.
Even as the instances of snakebites decreased in the city, it caused 14 deaths in 2018,the highest among UTs, in comparison to the nine in 2017. As many as 1,294 cases were reported in the city in 2017 while in 2018, the number decreased to 829.
Meanwhile, acute respiratory infection, a disease linked to air pollution, was responsible for 35 deaths in 2018 and 37 deaths in 2017. The number of cases, however, stood at around 1.5 lakh.
The acute diarrhoeal disease caused 87 deaths from 2017 to 2018 while more than 1 lakh patients were treated for the disease in health facilities of Chandigarh.
Among the 28,000 people who attended the non-communicable disease clinics in Chandigarh, 4,099 were diagnosed with hypertension and around 3,000 with diabetes, the profile reveals.
