VIJAYAWADA: Dengue has claimed yet another life in the city. A 10-year-old boy, Manikonda Abhinav died after exhibiting symptoms of dengue in the early hours of Friday at Andhra Hospitals. Ten-year-old girl Vanka Hari Priya died of same symptoms at the same hospital on Wednesday night.
Interestingly, both the victims were from Mylavaram and both died while undergoing treatment at Andhra Hospitals.
“Abhinav was admitted with high fever three days ago. He tested positive for primary dengue test. For confirmatory test, blood samples were sent to Government General Hospital and the reports are awaited. Though we started treatment his body failed to respond. He died due to multiple organ failure,” Dr PV Ramana Murthy, managing director of Andhra Hospitals, said.
Abhinav’s father Manikonda Hemanth Kumar, who is a chemist, said that he admitted his son to Andhra Hospitals on Monday after the medication he gave him for normal fever at home did not show any result. From Tuesday onwards, he was put on ventilator after he developed a severe respiratory problem. From then, his condition worsened, finally leading to multiple organ failure and death.
Government and private hospitals in Vijayawada city are being flooded with hundreds of dengue cases.
Apart from the pain caused by the infection, lack of enough platelets necessary for the treatment is bearing down heavily on the patients.
The pediatric ward of the new government general hospital in the city is teeming with patients showing symptoms of dengue and several other viral infections.
There are at present 41 dengue, 76 malaria and 62 typhoid patients under treatment at the new GGH. Similarly, most of the private clinics and hospitals are flooded with the patients suffering with fevers.
Patients suffering from dengue require platelet transfusion as a part of the treatment.
But at new GGH, attendants of patients are unable to get platelet packs due to the absence of a cell separation unit.Private blood banks flooded with requests are now charging exorbitant amounts for the procedure. As a result, they are looking for blood donors so that fresh blood transfusion can be done for the patients. However, doctors say the method is risky.
“My daughter was admitted to the new GGH, with high fever and the doctors confirmed it as dengue. As her health is deteriorating and platelet count is coming down, the doctors said that she needs to go through platelets transfusion. When we approached a private blood bank, they charged me Rs 8,000 for a single unit as I couldn’t afford it, I borrowed money from my relatives,” said K Lakshmi, a patient’s mother. On an average, a patient requires about one unit every two days. For critical cases, the requirement would be on alternate days.
“We are taking utmost care in treating the dengue patients and we suggest transfusion of fresh blood in the absence of platelets, where the results would be almost same. We are also planning to set up a cell separator unit soon,” GGH superintendent V Jaganmohan said.
“Transfusing fresh blood for dengue patients is unsafe, as their body lacks fighting the residue and might even rejects the transfused blood. In some cases patients may even lose their lives.” said Dr Sridhar.
The cost of the platelets depends on the way the collection is done. The platelets collected from random donors costs around Rs 7,000 to Rs 9,000 per unit, but platelets collected from a single donor costs up to Rs 13,000 a unit. Even if we have a separation unit, the process takes up to 48 hours, said a technician at a private blood bank on the condition of anonymity. Apart from the scarcity of platelets, the blood banks are also running out of blood, making even this option unavailable for the patients.