12-year-old boy dies in first case of hantavirus in city

MUMBAI: A 12-year-old boy from Colaba died of the hantavirus infection on Saturday. This is the first ever case of the infection in Mumbai, said public health officials.

MUMBAI: A 12-year-old boy from Colaba died of the hantavirus infection on Saturday. This is the first ever case of the infection in Mumbai, said public health officials.

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Hantavirus infection, known as hantavirus pulmonary Syndrome (HPS) is a lung infection caused by viruses found in the saliva, urine, and droppings of rodents. The illness is rare but has a high morbidity and mortality rate.

Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) officials confirmed that the child’s blood tested positive for the virus after being tested at a local laboratory. They are awaiting test results from the National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune.

The child, who was admitted to Bhatia Hospital, Tardeo, on September 29, succumbed after his parents discharged him against medical advice. Doctors who treated the child said the case baffled them. “The child was brought to the hospital with complaints of breathlessness, cough, fever and a dipping platelet count. For the first five days, we conducted tests for leptospirosis, dengue and malaria, but the results were negative,” said Dr Aditya Agarwal, chest physician at the hospital.

Agarwal said the child was put on antibiotics, but developed severe stomach pain that was diagnosed as abdominal pancreatitis (inflammation of the pancreas). “He started coughing up blood from the next day onwards. Within 24 hours, his health deteriorated to the point where we had to put him on a ventilator,” said Agarwal.

The child began bleeding profusely from both lungs. “We kept running tests for vector-borne diseases, but all of them came back negative thrice,” said Agarwal. The child’s response to the treatment was slow .

“Finally, after a week of the tests coming back negative, we suspected that it could possibly be a case of hantavirus and conducted tests including chest X-rays, a complete blood count, and an oxygen saturation test,” said Agarwal. Experts said the test results took about a week to confirm the diagnosis .

The family, intending to take the boy to their native village in Karnataka, discharged him at 6pm on Friday, in a cardiac ambulance with ventilator facilities, while his condition was still critical. The doctors said half-anhour after the family left, the laboratory confirmed the diagnosis. It is not known whether the child died in Mumbai. Dr Padmaja Keskar, executive health officer, BMC said the child had also been suffering from leptospirosis.