Another suspected dengue death

LUCKNOW: Even as suspected dengue claimed yet another life in the city, the health officials remained in a denial mode. Sub-inspector Shiv Kumar Tiwari (45) died on Thursday in a private hospital where he was undergoing treatment for last several days. The police and treating hospital said that Tiwari died due to dengue but chief medical officer (CMO), Lucknow, Dr AK Shukla, denied all reports.
Tiwari was posted at Ghazipur police station. He is survived by wife, two sons and a daughter. Station officer Ghazipur Sanjai Rai, said that Tiwari was admitted to a hospital following the second attack of dengue last week. "Tiwari was put on the ventilator by the doctors as his condition was serious. But he could not survive. We were told that blood had collected in his stomach due to haemorrhage which led to heart attack and death," he said. CMO Dr Anil Shukla, however, denied that Tiwari died of dengue. A team led by Dr Shukla visited the hospital after receiving the news of Tiwari's death. Later, he told TOI that the police officer was admitted on October 5 with high fever and low platelet count of 30,000. "But the tests (igm and igg) done did not confirm dengue.
A day after the admission, patient's platelet count increased to 70,000. Hence, it is not a death due to dengue," he added. When asked about the cause of death, Dr Shukla said that Tiwari was suffering from `severe metabolic acidosis', a condition wherein acid and alkaline level in human body is disturbed which leads to organ failure. "In Tiwari's case, he suffered a heart attack at 4 am on Thursday but it was managed. However, the police officer suffered another severe heart attack at around 9.30 am. This time doctors were not able to revive the patient," explained Dr Shukla.
However, the treating doctor, Dr HN Tripathi, when contacted, told toi that Tiwari died of Dengue Shock Syndrome (DSS). The DSS is the acute state of dengue in which a patient suffers haemorrhage due to low platelet count. Dr Tripathi said that DSS was responsible for the severe metabolic acidosis and septicimea in the patient leading to cardiac arrest and death. But health officials did not accept the `observations' of the expert doctors on Tiwari's death.
While Dr Shukla did not revealed the "real cause" of Tiwari's death, health officials also claimed that so far only 261 confirmed dengue cases and one dengue death has been reported from all over the state. However, going by the figures available in various government hospitals in the city, over 100 dengue patients are undergoing treatment at present and an equal number are in private hospitals. Dengue deaths are said to be over two dozen.
While health officials tried to water down the dengue menace, over three dozen more suspected dengue cases were reported in the city. People were panic struck because of the spurt in the cases and lack of preventive measures by the health officials and the Lucknow Municipal Corporation. The increase in the suspected dengue cases is also resulting in panic buying of platelets from the state blood bank at Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj Medical University.
Interestingly, the health officials held private doctors responsible for the dengue panic. They said that dengue is confirmed only through PCR and ELISA reader test but private clinics are conducting platelet count test. Platelets can decrease in other viral infections and due to intake of strong anti-biotics also. However, officials could not explain the gap between the number of confirmed dengue patients (over 200) in the city hospital and their count (261).
Significantly, while the three major government hospitals -- Balrampur, Shyama Prasad Mukherjee and Ram Manohar Lohia -- are witnessing a heavy turn out of fever cases, of which 20% are said to be suffering from dengue, there is only one testing centre at the health directorate. The testing centre is heavily overloaded leading to delay in delivery of test reports and treatment, resulting in widespread confusion, chaos and panic among the people.