Ghaziabad resident first chikungunya fatality, 497 new cases in a week

NEW DELHI: What could be the first chikungunya death in Delhi-NCR, a 65-year-old-man, who had tested positive for the mosquito-borne infection, passed away early

NEW DELHI: What could be the first chikungunya death in Delhi-NCR, a 65-year-old-man, who had tested positive for the mosquito-borne infection, passed away early Monday morning in a private city hospital.

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The man died of sepsis (blood infection) caused by chikungunya and his RT-PCR test came in positive in the evening with high viral count, said Sir Ganga Ram Hospital officials.

The patient, whose name has been withheld, was referred to Delhi from Yashoda Hospital in Ghaziabad. This is the first chikungunya death in the city. However, it will not be counted as a Delhi death as the person had contracted the mosquito-borne disease from the neighbouring Ghaziabad, where he lived.

Chikungunya is a viral disease, which is transmitted by the bite of aedes aegypti mosquito, but rarely causes death.

“As such, chikungunya does not result in death,” said Dr SP Byotra, head of the department of medicine at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, where the patient died.

“The cases get complicated in the elderly and people who have co-morbid conditions like diabetes, hypertension etc. In this case, the patient came to the hospital with sepsis and died of multi-organ failure in the ICU,” said Dr Byotra.

Dr Rommel Tickoo, senior consultant of internal medicine at Max Superspeciality hospital, described the sudden increase in the number of chikungunya cases as an “outbreak”.

“The medicine OPDs are getting large number of chikungunya cases for the past two or three months but the civic bodies have started reporting the cases now,” Dr Tickoo said.

The number of chikungunya cases in Delhi went up from 560 to 1,057, an increase of 497, during the week ending on September 10, according to data released by the municipal corporations.

In the same week, 387 cases of dengue were also reported, taking the total number of cases to 1158.

Last year, 1,872 cases were reported during the same period. In 2015, Delhi witnessed its worst dengue outbreak, affecting almost 16,000 and killing 60.

The civic body recorded two dengue deaths during the week ending September 10, taking the toll to four. However, Hindustan Times independently has confirmed 11 deaths in the city.

While, most private hospitals are running to capacity, fever wards in government hospitals have vacant beds. This is because government hospitals do not admit a patient unless absolutely necessary.

“This year, the number of admissions is less because most of the patients are coming to the hospital OPD with chikungunya and the dengue strain is also not virulent,” said Dr AK Mehta, medical director of Deen Dayal Upadhyay hospital.

“The patients suffer from intense pain, but they do not require admission. During the same time last year, beds had to be diverted from other departments,” Dr Mehta said.

The hospital has 53 beds for dengue, chikungunya and fever cases, with provisions for 23more.

At Lok Nayak hospital, 54 beds have been demarcated for the fever ward. “Although, our ward has 100% occupancy, we do not need more,” said Dr JC Passey, medical director of the hospital.

At Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, however, only 40 of the total 110 beds set aside for fever patients are being used.

Max Healthcare has added 160 extra beds for patients with dengue, chikungunya and viral fever across its 10 hospitals in DelhiNCR. “Max Healthcare has made necessary arrangements to cater to increased patient volumes by increasing the bed capacity at our hospitals and also transferring patient across our units in Delhi-NCR,” said Dr Sandeep Budhiraja, clinical director, Max Healthcare.