Mumbai: The dengue toll this year has risen to 14 with the death of a 41-year-old Mulund West resident, Purnima Iyer, who died of multiple organ failure at Mulund-based Platinum hospital on November 12, two days after she was brought there with classic dengue symptoms like breathlessness, fever and chills.
“She tested positive for dengue after we conducted the NS1 antigen test. Her platelet count, however, dipped very low within two days,” said physician Dr Kaushtubh Durve from Platinum Hospital. The clinical cause of death in Iyer’s case was acute cardio-respiratory arrest with sepsis with a case of dengue. “Her kidney, lungs and liver stopped functioning,” Durve added.
According to Durve, while the hospital informed the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) of the death immediately, a formal report was submitted Monday. Dr Mangala Gomare, deputy executive health officer at the BMC, said the death was under investigation. “We are treating it as a suspected dengue death. A final test, called Enzyme-linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA), is used to confirm a case of dengue,” she said.
According to Iyer’s relative P S Nagrajan, she was earlier admitted at Saarthi nursing home in Mulund, where she was treated for a week. “She had fever since November 4 and had been taking treatment for that. But since the hospital did not have ventilator, we had to shift her to Platinum,” Nagrajan said. Iyer was immediately put on ventilator support at Platinum Hospital. However, her organs started failing within two days of admission, he added.
Iyer’s family filed a complaint with the BMC, which sent a team for inspection. According to residents in Iyer’s building complex in Mulund west, called City of Joy, there are currently over half-a-dozen people there who are being treated for dengue. “There were two or three breeding sites found during inspection,” a relative of Iyer confirmed.
According to insecticide department of the BMC, 51 per cent of mosquito breeding sites in the city have been found in residential zones as opposed to 40 per cent in slum-like areas and 10 per cent in slum dwellings. “We are sensitizing people about preventive measures through various mass media channels. The civic body cannot enter each house and clean breeding sites,” additional municipal commissioner Sanjay Deshmukh said.
So far, the BMC has confirmed 10 dengue deaths while three, including Iyer’s, are still under investigation. Doctors across private hospitals have, however, claimed the actual death toll is higher and count of dengue cases are under-reported across the city.
