Doctors have attributed the deaths of these patients to co-morbidity, or the existence of other health issues in the patients that become aggravated due to the disease contracted.
As the viral season hits its brutal stride, New Delhi woke up on Tuesday to the startling news of people dying due to chikungunya. By the evening, five deaths of chikungunya patients had been reported in the city, the last one of a 73-year-old man at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences.
Unlike dengue, chikungunya has never been seen as a fatal disease, it rarely requires hospital admission. Dengue, which causes the body's platelet count to fall, can cause hemorrhagic fever, which results in patients dying from internal bleeding. In fact, according to the National Health Profile, 2016, released by the Central Bureau of Health Intelligence, there are no chikungunya deaths reported in the country.
Doctors have attributed the deaths of these patients to co-morbidity, or the existence of other health issues in the patients that become aggravated due to the disease contracted.
Three deaths were officially reported by the tertiary care hospital Sir Ganga Ram Hospital. Another patient died just when he was brought to Ganga Ram, on the night of September 12, before he could be admitted, the hospital's vice chairman Dr SP Byotra told the press. This patient tested positive for both dengue and chikungunya. Byotra, the chairman of the internal medicine department, led the team that examined the patients.
He told the press that all patients had reached Ganga Ram in critical conditions, having been admitted in other hospitals before. All were above 60 years of age. Ramendra Pandey, 65, from Ghaziabad, had diabetes. Udhay Shankar Prasad, 61, from Dwarka, had a kidney problem. Ashok Chauhan, 62, from Aligarh, had asthma.
Patients also often test positive for chikungunya as once the virus is contracted, the blood shows positive in tests for almost a year.
However, it is not yet clear what the doctors attending to these patients will write as the cause of death.
Such was the alarm in the city that union health minister JP Nadda, spoke to the media Tuesday evening, requesting all states to work for the wellbeing of patients suffering from chikungunya and dengue, and that he would soon review status and situation.
The virulent viral season has meant that hospitals have had to add more beds for fever patients. Ganga Ram itself has created a special ward with 50 beds and 20 trolleys for those who come with suspected dengue or chikungunya fever.
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