Chikungunya toll climbs to 11 in Delhi, AIIMS confirms one case

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New Delhi: Five more deaths from chikungunya complications were reported on Wednesday at a private hospital in Delhi, while AIIMS confirmed one suspected case, taking to 11 the number of fatalities due to the vector-borne disease in the city that is grappling with a severe health crisis.

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," Apollo Hospital said.

One suspected chikungunya death at AIIMS was today also confirmed.

"The patient died last week. He was aged above 60 and had co-morbid conditions and died of multi-organ failure," a top AIIMS official told PTI.

Five deaths from chikungunya were reported till yesterday 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 last evening at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, where three other elderly persons succumbed to the vector-borne disease on Monday.

A 22-year-old girl died of cardiac arrest triggered by chikungunya complications at Hindu Rao Hospital. Isha, from Kabir Nagar, had died on September 1, officials said.

65-year-old Ramendra Pandey, referred to Sir Ganga Ram Hospital from a Ghaziabad hospital, had died of chikungunya with sepsis on Monday.

Six of the 11 victims belonged to Uttar Pradesh, including two from Ghaziabad, and four to Delhi.

Delhi Health Minister Satyender Jain today said "chikungunya medically cannot cause death and therefore these deaths reported in hospital would be examined, as to whether there were co-morbid conditions like diabetes or kidney problems in them."

Doctors say that chikungunya is not a life-threatening disease in general, but in rare cases leads to complications that prove fatal, especially in children and old persons.

According to a municipal report, at least 1,057 cases of this vector-borne disease have been recorded till September 10.

Meanwhile, AIIMS laboratories have tested 1,443 chikungunya blood test samples positive till yesterday.