 "Mosquitoes, Zika")
Five more deaths from chikungunya complications were reported on Wednesday at a private hospital in Delhi, taking to 10 the number of fatalities due to the vector-borne disease in the national capital that is grappling with a severe health crisis.
All five deaths have taken place at Apollo Hospital and most of the victims were aged 80 or above.
"We have had five deaths in the past three weeks of patients with chikungunya fever, most of whom were elderly. 80-year-old Mahendra Singh from Ghaziabad died of chikungunya complications yesterday afternoon," hospital authorities said.
"He was diagnosed positive for chikungunya through RT-PCR test. He died of multi-organ failure triggered by complications from the disease," they said.
Chikungunya is taking its toll in the national capital where the number of cases have climbed to over 1,000 this season and fever clinics are getting swamped with rush of patients.
"Most of them had associated co-morbid disease conditions and complications like chronic kidney disease, coronary artery disease, which affect the course of recovery," the hospital said.
Five deaths from chikungunya were reported till yesterday in the city that is battling a viral onslaught of this disease after nearly 10 years. Four of these deaths took place at the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital (SGRH).
75-year-old Prakash Kalra of Mathura died last evening at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, where three other elderly persons succumbed to the vector-borne disease on Monday.
"He (Kalra) was brought to our hospital in a very aggressive stage of disease, having suffered kidney failure. He was admitted on Tuesday in the ICU and his chikungunya RT-PCR test had come positive," SGRH authorities said.
A 22-year-old girl died of cardiac arrest triggered by chikungunya complications at Hindu Rao Hospital. Isha, from Kabir Nagar, had died on September 1, officials said.
65-year-old Ramendra Pandey, referred to Sir Ganga Ram Hospital from a Ghaziabad hospital, had died of chikungunya with sepsis on Monday.
"Uday Shanker (61) of Dwarka was admitted on September 11 and he died on September 12. And, Ashok Chauhan, 62, from Aligarh also died of chikungunya on Monday. He too was admitted in ICU on September 11 and his RT-PCR test came positive," SGRH authorities said.
Doctors say that chikungunya is not a life-threatening disease in general, but in rare cases leads to complications that prove fatal, especially in children and old persons.
Incidentally, one suspected chikungunya death has also been reported at AIIMS, but hospital authorities are yet to confirm it. According to reports, the "chikungunya death" at the AIIMS took place sometime in September.
According to a municipal report released yesterday, at least 1,057 cases of this vector-borne disease have been recorded till September 10.
Apollo Hospital authorities said that out of the five patients who died, four were men and one woman.
"One 31-year-old male patient and one 45-year-old female were among those who died during this period. Rest three male patients were above 80 years of age," they said.
"The 31-year-old patient had both dengue and chikungunya," the hospital said, adding, "three of the five patients were from Uttar Pradesh and the rest from Delhi."
Lalit Dar of Department of Microbiology at AIIMS said, "At our laboratories, 1,360 chikungunya blood test samples have tested positive till September 11."
Authorities at the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital said, "One more person suffering from chikungunya is in the ICU."
At present, there are 29 chikungunya patients admitted at the hospital, out of which 20 were admitted in the last 10 days, they said.
"At present four dengue patients are also admitted, two of them in the last 10 days. One of the patients is in ICU," a senior hospital official said.
In last 10 days, the hospital has tested 524 samples each for dengue and chikungunya, out of which five and 293 respectively have come positive in RT-PCR test, he said.
Out of the total cases this season till September 10, 202 have been recorded in south Delhi, followed by 148 in north Delhi and 57 in east Delhi, the report said.
For SDMC, which reported the highest number of people diagnosed with chikungunya, its four zone recorded cases as follows--West (56), Central (57), South (56) and Najafgarh (33).
540 cases have been recorded from areas outside the jurisdiction of the three municipal corporations here. 110 cases of chikungunya have been reported from outside of Delhi, the report said.
According to SDMC, 64 cases of chikungunya were reported last year.
IMA President-Elect Dr K K Aggarwal cautioned about chikungunya virus (CHIKV) that can cause CHIKV-associated encephalitis.
"Children younger than one year and adults aged 65 years or older have the highest incidence of CHIKV-associated encephalitis," he said, while claiming such cases are occurring in Delhi.
The sudden spike in chikungunya cases in Delhi and several other parts of north India has come nearly 10 years after a big outbreak of the mosquito-borne disease across the country.
In 2006, over 13 lakh suspected chikungunya fever cases were reported across the country, according to NVBDCP.
According to National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme (NVBDCP), around 12,255 cases of chinkungunya have been reported across the country till August 31. Karnataka alone has recorded 8,941, Maharashtra 839 and Andhra Pradesh 492.
