Capital’s first suspected dengue death reported

A 38-year-old woman is suspected to have died of dengue at a city hospital on Thursday night. Although the rapid test reports of the patient are negative, reports HT Correspondent.

A 38-year-old woman is suspected to have died of dengue at a city hospital on Thursday night. Although the hospital authorities are saying that the patient bore all symptoms of the vector borne-disease, the rapid test reports of the patient from the hospital are negative.

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Ritu (38), a resident of Timarpur, Chandarnagar, was admitted to Sant Parmanand Hospital with symptoms of dengue and was later referred to Tirath Hospital where she died on Thursday evening, hospital sources said. Her platelet count was as low as 5,000, they said, adding that it raises the suspicion that she died of dengue. The MCD Health department said the hospital has not sent them a confirmation on the cause of her death.

“They have sent us a report saying it was a case of suspected dengue, although the rapid tests conducted on her reported the IGM negative,” said Dr N.K. Yadav, medical health officer, MCD. The tests are conducted to detect the recent infection.

“The hospital authorities could not conduct the ELIZA, which is a foolproof test, maybe because they fell short of time,” he added.

The MCD officials are taking all possible measures to prevent any outbreak of the disease in the Timarpur area, from where the case was reported. Dr Yadav said they sent teams to the area as soon as the suspected case of dengue death was reported.

Another dengue case was earlier reported when Ahmed (24), a resident of Bihar, was hospitalised on June 16, but he was discharged after treatment.

Last year, the MCD had managed to restrict the number of cases. The total number of cases reported from Delhi was 548, which included patients coming from outside. Only one case of confirmed death was reported.

In 2006, the dreaded dengue virus had killed 65 people.