Two reported deaths from dengue in a couple of days in Haridwar district have scared the people. They are all the more scared as they are not in a position to repose confidence in the district health department.
The first death occurred as a 30- year- old pharmacist Garima Gupta of Jwalapur, who had been admitted at BHEl hospital on Diwali after she was down with fever, died at Apollo Hospital in Delhi where she was transferred later on Saturday. Her relatives claimed that she died of dengue.
A day after, a middle-aged woman died presumably of dengue at Bandar village in Mangalaur area. She died on Sunday after she was transferred to a higher medical centre from Roorkee civil hospital where she was initially admitted. The villagers claimed that a female teacher from the same village had died of the same disease earlier this month.
However, the district health authorities have not yet confirmed that Dengue has caused the back-to-back deaths.
Mother of Garima, a staff nurse at BHEl Hospital, Kamla Gupta told The Pioneer that her daughter had been afflicted with a fever which was later confirmed as Dengue
“Her blood platelets count dropped drastically from 60000 to 30000 in a few days. Things worsened further on the day of Diwali as that evening the platelet count dropped to 24000. She was admitted at the BHEl Hospital from where she was rushed to Apollo Hospital in Delhi where she died a few hours after her admission,” said Kamla.
The District Magistrate Deepak Rawat having ordered probe into the death to have the cause confirmed, the district hospital’s repeated claim that the district has seen no death due to the vector-borne disease so far this season has come under question.
The district malaria officer Gurnam Singh, however, affirmed that so far this season 430 suspected Dengue cases have been reported from the district out of which 130 have been confirmed. “But no death has been reported so far from any part of the district,” he added.
MNA, Nagar Nigam Roorkee Ashok Kumar Pandey said, “We have asked the private hospitals to give details of the Dengue patients. If we get the details area wise a massive campaign can be launched at the regional level.
However, at the same time, the department is doing everything possible to keep things under control,” he added.