Chikungunya toll rises to 10, Delhi health crisis deepens

New Delhi: Five more deaths from chikungunya complications were reported on Wednesday at a private hospital in Delhi, taking to 10 the number of fatalities due to the vector-borne disease in the national capital that is grappling with a severe health crisis.
All five deaths have taken place at Apollo Hospital and most of the victims were aged 80 or above.
“We have had five deaths in the past three weeks of patients with chikungunya fever, most of whom were elderly. 80-year-old Mahendra Singh from Ghaziabad died of chikungunya complications yesterday afternoon,” hospital authorities said.
“He was diagnosed positive for chikungunya through RT-PCR test. He died of multi-organ failure triggered by complications from the disease,” they said. Chikungunya is taking its toll in the national capital where the number of cases have climbed to over 1,000 this season and fever clinics are getting swamped with rush of patients.
“Most of them had associated co-morbid disease conditions and complications like chronic kidney disease, coronary artery disease, which affect the course of recovery,” the hospital said. Five deaths from chikungunya were reported till Tuesday in the city that is battling a viral onslaught of this disease after nearly 10 years.
Four of these deaths took place at the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital (SGRH). 75-year-old Prakash Kalra of Mathura died on Tuesday evening at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, where three other elderly persons succumbed to the vector-borne disease on Monday.
“He (Kalra) was brought to our hospital in a very aggressive stage of disease, having suffered kidney failure. He was admitted yesterday in the ICU and his chikungunya RT-PCR test had come positive,” SGRH authorities said.
A 22-year-old girl died of cardiac arrest triggered by chikungunya complications at Hindu Rao Hospital.  (PTI)