Woman in Kolkata hospital isolation ward contracts dengue, dies

KOLKATA: A 43-year-old housewife from Sodepur, who was admitted to AMRI Hospital, Mukundapur for bone marrow transplant and was kept in isolation ward for a month, succumbed to dengue on Friday.

The victim, Mou Dutt, had been admitted to the hospital on September 12. But on Wednesday, a blood test revealed that she had dengue, prompting her family to question how she could contract the virus within the confines of the isolation ward, which is supposed to be infection-free.

She died at 9am on Friday.Her death certificate puts dengue haemorrhagic shock syndrome as the cause of death. The hospital claimed the victim may have got the virus during blood transfusion.
A patient of mylodysplastic syndrome—a disorder which prevents bone marrow from producing healthy and mature blood cells—the woman underwent several blood transfusions in the past one month. She was never taken out of the isolation ward since she was prone to infections during the course of treatment.
On Wednesday, her family was informed that Mou had dengue. “She had been under treatment at the hospital for the past one month and never left the isolation ward. It is surprising that she still contracted dengue which can happen only from mosquito bite. I would like the hospital to answer whether she got the disease from a mosquito bite or from infected blood,” said her husband Swarnankur Dutt, a lawyer.
‘She got dengue via blood transfer’
Mou is the 14th dengue victim in the city.
The hospital said it has alerted its blood bank and will check if there was any lapse. A statement issued by AMRI said: “Doctors suspect the patient got infected from blood transfusions she received as part of the bone marrow transplantation she was undergoing. As AMRI Mukundapur does not have a blood bank and receives supply from banks across the city, hospital authorities have intimated all its supplier blood banks about the situation, raising serious concerns.”
“I asked the doctor how was it possible as she was in isolation. They had no clear reply,” said the victim’s husband. She was shifted to ITU late on Wednesday after dengue was diagnosed. The family plans to lodge a complaint after Puja.
The hospital said the woman died of dengue haemorrhagic shock in a ‘known case of refractory myelodysplastic syndrome’. “Contrary to media reports, she could not have been transmitted with dengue from the hospital as she was in a room with ‘positive pressure’.”