6-fold rise in hospitalisation due to dengue-like illnesses in Mumbai

MUMBAI:There was a six-fold rise in hospitalisation due to dengue-like illnesses in July, compared to June. The city also recorded the season’s first dengue and leptospirosis deaths in July, BMC’s public health department said on Thursday.

Monsoon diseases, barring malaria, saw a significant jump in July, which witnessed record-breaking rainfall. From six hospitalisations due to leptospirosis in June, the number rose to 62 in July. Admissions due to suspected dengue rose from 280 in June to 1,700 in July, while confirmed cases jumped from eight to 21. Suspected dengue refers to cases that clinically look like dengue and have come positive on rapid tests. Hospitalisation due to influenza H1N1 (formerly called swine flu) too increased nearly three times, from 43 in June to 113 in July.

BMC said the leptospirosis victim was a 55-year-old woman from Ghatkopar who passed away on July 9 after first symptoms of fever with chills, bodyache, weakness, vomiting and loose motions on July

1. She was treated by local doctors, and it’s unclear if she was administered doxycycline. She was admitted to a civic hospital on July 4 after two episodes of convulsion. She subsequently tested positive for leptospirosis. She did not respond to treatment and succumbed to septic shock with acute lung and kidney injury.

“Where people may have waded through flood water, we are advising doctors to administer the antibiotic doxycycline to all fever patients,” said Dr Padmaja Keskar, BMC’s executive health officer.

The dengue victim was a 32-year-old man from Mulund, who was detected with the viral disease on July 15, two days after the onset of initial symptoms of fever, joint pain and vomiting. A review by BMC’s death committee showed he sought admission at a private hospital on July 17 after he developed breathlessness. He succumbed to dengue hemorrhagic shock syndrome with organ failure on July 20. “Intermittent rainfall can lead to breeding of dengue-causing aedes aegypti mosquitoes, which are day-biting,” said Rajan Naringrekar, BMC’s insecticide officer.

There were also two H1N1 deaths in July but both were not residents of Mumbai.