Title - Dengue claims hospital staff, affects new areas - The Times of India

KOLKATA: Dengue has claimed yet another life in the city. Thirty-year-old Mary Banwar, a support staff at Rabindranath Tagore International Institute of Cardiac Sciences, died in the hospital on Tuesday. This is the fifth confirmed death but the list may get longer. Two children had died at BC Roy Hospital on Monday of suspected dengue shock syndrome.

The government is still in denial mode but private hospitals have run out of room and thousands of dengue victims are being treated at home, say sources. Families of these patients have to run to laboratories every day to get the platelet count checked. They are jittery because as in Mary's case, a patient's condition may deteriorate far too quickly to get help.

Mary was admitted to hospital on Monday with high fever. Blood reports confirmed dengue. Though her platelet count stood at 150,000, her condition deteriorated suddenly and rapidly. She suffered a cardiac arrest around 6am on Tuesday. Initially revived on ventilation, she kept sinking and died around 12.50pm. She was a resident of Jamshedpur and had been working with RTIICS since 2008.

Health officials are alarmed because the disease is spreading to south Kolkata and the New Alipore area after sweeping Salt Lake and areas around EM Bypass. The administration is still trying to suppress figures when dengue has spread rapidly to south Kolkata — particularly areas like Gariahat, Ballygunge and New Alipore which had escaped earlier outbreaks.

The government has not officially recorded even a single dengue death this year although the disease has claimed five lives. Mary Banwar, an employee of Rabindranath Tagore International Institute of Cardiac Sciences, died on Tuesday (TOI has a copy of her death certificate that clearly mentions dengue shock syndrome).

So far, the majority of dengue cases were being reported from Salt Lake and areas dotting the EM Bypass. Now a large number of dengue patients are being rushed to hospitals from other localities of the city, a clear indication that the virus is on the rampage all over Kolkata, unchecked. KMC sources said that hundreds of cases had been reported from Kasba, Garfa, Haltu and EM Bypass areas in southern fringe in the last few days.

"We are getting dengue patients from localities like Thakurpukur and Phoolbagan. Thankfully, we could send 17 patients back home after they got well last week. We have only two patients admitted currently and they are stable," said Suparna Sengupta, chief operating officer Woodlands Nursing Home.

The administration is conducting awareness drives on loudspeakers and is sanitizing mosquito breeding areas but it may be too little too late.

"Right now we are treating 28 dengue patients, including children of doctors. These patients are from localities like Alipore, Behala, Jadavpur, Kidderpore and Regent Park," said Dr Sudeshna Lahiri, assistant medical superintendent of Calcutta Medical Research Institute (CMRI).

Since August 17, CMRI has treated 61 other patients. The viral fever has gripped Gariahat, Ballygunge,Topsia, Tiljala, Kasba and Thakurpukur as well. Calcutta National Medical and Hospital has around 20 suspected dengue patients who were brought in from Park Circus, Tiljala, Topsia and Tangra.

The condition of many patients is said to be critical. They are scattered in several hospitals. Doctors are so hard-pressed that they are advising admission only to the very serious cases — those that are suffering from a fluctuating platelet count, dehydration, vomiting, severe pain and high fever.

"Many dengue cases can be treated at home so we are admitting only those who need hospital treatment. All patients admitted in our hospital are doing well except for three, including a child," said Dr Arindam Kar, critical care in-charge in Medica Superspecialty Hospital.

Apart from hospitals, individual doctors are getting hordes of patients who are suspected to be affected by dengue. "The number of patients with high fever and symptoms of dengue is increasing by the day. Though the civic authority has begun dengue control and management exercises, it is too late. It should have begun as soon as the sporadic cases were reported," said Dr Saumitra Bhattacharyya who runs a private clinic at Salt Lake.

The railway-run BR Singh hospital, which caters to only railway employees and their families, has 12 dengue patients.

MMiC, health, Arin Ghosh said that 774 of the 1,405 samples tested so far have come positive for dengue in the NS1 test and 204 in IGM tests. "Massive fogging operations" were being carried out in all 141 wards of Kolkata Municipal Corporation, along with awareness campaigns, he said.

Dengue attacks have been reported from Asansol, Siliguri and Jalpaiguri as well, sources said. Seven persons have been affected by dengue in Jalpaiguri, health department sources said.