This story is from October 22, 2018

Dengue claims 53-year-old on Bijoya Dashami; state toll crosses 15

Dengue claims 53-year-old on Bijoya Dashami; state toll crosses 15
(Representative image)
KOLKATA: When the city was bidding adieu to Goddess Durga on Saturday night, a family from Kanchrapara was busy preparing for the last journey of one of its members, who died of dengue. Fifty-three-year-old Laxmi Banerjee died at a city hospital on the night of Dashami — five days after being detected with dengue.
Banerjee’s death certificate mentions dengue hemorrhagic fever as one of the causes of death.

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The vector-borne disease has claimed more than 15 lives in the state this year so far. The death toll includes at least eight children. Virologists fear the dengue menace may continue for some time till the mercury starts dipping.
The resident of Sidheswari Lane in North 24 Parganas’ Kanchrapara had been suffering from fever since October
12. On the advice of the local doctor she was initially taken to a government hospital in Kanchrapara. Doctors in the hospital suspected dengue and shifter her to another government hospital in Sealdah, where her blood samples tested positive for dengue on October 14.
According to the family members, Banerjee’s condition kept deteriorating despite treatment. They shifted her to a private hospital in Kolkata on October 15 as she needed better facilities.

“We shifted her thrice, but there was no improvement in my wife’s condition. Her platelet count had dipped. The platelet transfusions and ventilation support did not help either,” said her husband Narayan Banerjee, a former employee of Indian Railways.
According to a source at the Kolkata hospital, the patient’s platelet count had dipped as low as 62,000 per microlitre of blood and she was brought to the hospital in a very critical condition. “The patient also had chronic kidney problems and diabetes. These factors only worsened her condition and made the job a tough one for doctors attending to her,” said a source at the hospital.
Doctors declared her dead around 10.40pm on Saturday, citing dengue hemorrhagic fever, sepsis and multi organ failure among reasons for the death.
Banerjee was a resident of ward number 7 under Kanchrapara Municipality. The civic body swung into action on getting the news of the death, taking up vector control exercises. But locals said that it was too little and too late.
“Such drive to combat mosquito breeding should have been taken up before the onset of the monsoon. It’s unfortunate that the civic body waits for deaths to happen before coming up with such knee-jerk reactions,” said a local resident.
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