BHUBANESWAR: Even as hospitals in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack have reported at least five dengue-related fatalities in the last month, official data released by the department maintained not a single death has taken place so far this year.
As per data released by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Odisha is among six high dengue-burden states that have been fuelling the case tally this season. While Kerala has recorded the maximum 6,608 cases, followed by 4,805 in Karnataka, 3,309 in Tamil Nadu, 3,164 in Maharashtra and 2,718 in Andhra Pradesh till July, Odisha has reported 2,426 cases till August 20. Kerala has also announced the highest number of 31 deaths.
Surprisingly, not a single death has been declared officially in Odisha and the cause of death in the cases has been attributed to some other comorbid conditions by the Health department.
The state has been refuting dengue deaths since the first fatality that took place in a corporate hospital in Bhubaneswar on July 22. Although the patient, a nine-year-old girl from the Jagamara area in the state capital, had tested positive for dengue and was admitted to the ICU and put on a ventilator, the additional district public health officer (vector-borne disease) of Khurda attributed the cause of her death to encephalitis or septicaemia following an investigation. The government did not accept it as a case of dengue as the test was conducted in a private lab with a rapid kit and the platelet count was 1.45 lakh per CuMm.
In another curious case at Capital Hospital where a woman tested positive for dengue post-delivery and succumbed during treatment on July 31, health officials claimed she died of postpartum complications.
“The woman had tested dengue negative before delivery. She, however, tested positive for dengue on July 27 during her stay in the hospital. The patient died while undergoing treatment,” said an official of Capital Hospital.
Director of public health Dr Niranjan Mishra said as malaria, dengue and Japanese encephalitis are notifiable diseases, deaths due to the diseases can be announced only after epidemiological investigations for which a district-level committee headed by the chief district medical and public health officer has been constituted. “We have received information about five deaths so far and the cause of death in none of them was found to be dengue,” he said and urged people not to panic and get admitted unless there is a drastic fall in platelet count.
Data mismatch
Odisha among top-6 high dengue burden states in country
2,246 cases as on August 20,2023
Government says deaths not due to dengue
5 deaths reported at hospitals in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack