The boy's ailment turned out to be ITP triggered by an unclassified virus, said Debashish Saha, consultant at AMRI. "With drugs, the platelet count climbed back to 30,000 and the boy recovered within a week. He was released on Monday," Saha said.
ITP is usually a secondary symptom of a viral infection. Viruses causing a sore throat or upper respiratory tract infection may lead to ITP. It has to be treated with steroids and intra-venous immuno-globuline (IVIG), unlike dengue. "A platelet drop should not be taken to be haemorrhagic dengue unless NS1 and IgM tests confirm it. There could be a tendency to take platelet drop as a dengue symptom but it could be dangerous," said Samarjit Naskar, critical care expert at Belle Vue Clinic. Naskar, who came across a similar case recently, felt dengue tests should be repeated if there are doubts. ITP patients could bleed from skin. Bleeding with urine or from the mouth is common.
In the AMRI youngster's case, the skin bleeding had started on the second day.