Apollo recorded 5 deaths, Bara Hindu Rao Hospital recorded its first death from complications led by chikungunya and AIIMS also recorded another death.
Advertisement
Lalit Dar of Department of Microbiology at AIIMS said, “At our laboratories, 1,360 chikungunya blood test samples have tested positive in the last till yesterday”.
Two of the three deaths that took place on Monday at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, were reported on Tuesday as well. The Union Health Minister’s claims were supported by Dr DS Rana, who is the Chairman of Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in Delhi. “We can’t say if deaths were due to chikungunya; don’t have evidence of other diseases, we have evidence only of organ failure”.
“The remaining five death cases too are also suspected to be due to dengue”.
Health facilities in the nation’s capital have been grappling with the vector-borne illness, as the number of cases reported have risen above the 1,000 mark.
As chikungunya and dengue continued to wreak havoc in Delhi with the death toll from the two vector-borne diseases climbing to 32, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has slammed India’s government-owned disease surveillance system saying that it is important that the fever related data is well-represented.
Given the furore created in the capital over dengue and chikungunya deaths, a “death review committee” has been constituted to see if the virus could be linked to deaths. “Cases are rising and more and more people are getting affected”.
“Most of them had associated co-morbid disease conditions and complications like chronic kidney disease, coronary artery disease, which affect the course of recovery”, Apollo Hospital said. He was the fifth chikungunya patient to have lost life at the hospital in the last four days. “In the case of dengue, a total of 96 patients have been admitted to AIIMS so far this month”.
At least 10 people have died from dengue and malaria, even as sick patients flock to Delhi’s already overflowing hospitals. But still, we have sought a detailed report from Delhi government.
Besides, five other fatalities have been reported by different hospitals in the city, which have not been acknowledged yet by the SDMC. The ASSOCHAM has cautioned the government that with increasing cases of chikungunya and dengue and the kind of negative reaction on the tourists, the traffic is set to drop drastically, leaving a bruising impact on businesses such as hotels, airlines, taxi operators, restaurants etc.
The sudden spike in chikungunya cases in Delhi and several other parts of north India has come almost 10 years after a big outbreak of the mosquito-borne disease across the country.
Advertisement
According to the civic bodies, the highest dengue cases were reported in 2015 with a total of 15,876 people infected by the vector-borne disease with 60 deaths. “Meanwhile in West Bengal, the cases of malaria have been reported”, said Nadda.
