Mumbai: 4-month-old dies of dengue, fourth casualty this week

Samiya is the youngest Mumbai resident to die of dengue this year. On Thursday, Manasvi Devrukhakar, 3, died of dengue at Holy Spirit Hospital, Andheri.

A four-month-old girl from Kurla died of dengue on Wednesday, making her the fourth reported dengue casualty this week. On Monday, Samiya Masiulla Shaikh was taken to Sion Hospital with breathing problems. She was incubated and later admitted to KEM Hospital. Within a day, she developed a fever. Doctors then tested her for dengue.

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“Her platelet count did not drop, even though that is a common symptom of dengue. When she got fever, we decided to test for the infection,” said Dr Mukesh Agarwal, head of the KEM hospital’s paediatric department.

“It’s an unusual case, as she had no typical signs of dengue infection. Our doctors said she died of cardiorespiratory failure, in a case of dengue fever, on Wednesday,” said Dr Shubhangi Parkar, dean of the hospital.

Samiya is the youngest Mumbai resident to die of dengue this year. On Thursday, Manasvi Devrukhakar, 3, died of dengue at Holy Spirit Hospital, Andheri. The insecticide department found breeding sites of the Aedes mosquito – responsible for dengue transmission – outside Devrukhakar’s house in Andheri.

“Larvae were breeding in a bucket at temple just five meters away from her home. We have found larvae of Aedes mosquitoes breeding in or around homes of those who have died of dengue infection,” said R Naringrekar, chief insecticide officer, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

While civic officials said Samiya’s case is a “suspected” one, her death takes the toll from the infection to 12 this year.