A 29-year-old woman who had tested positive for dengue died at AMRI Hospitals in Salt Lake on Thursday morning.
The woman’s family had given an address in Uttar Pradesh’s Chandauli while admitting her to the hospital on Wednesday.
It was not clear whether the woman was a resident of Kolkata or was visiting the city, said an official of the hospital. Archana Devi was admitted to the hospital with high fever and low platelet count, the official said. “She died of dengue shock syndrome,” he said. Dengue has claimed a number of lives in the city since January.
A senior official of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) had said before the Puja that 1,525 cases of dengue had been reported from the city between January and September 18. The KMC has not released any updated figures on dengue infections since then. A state health department official said on Thursday that 607 fresh dengue cases were reported from across West Bengal during the day.
According to him, 4,678 cases were detected in the state in the last week — which means on average 668 cases a day. Altogether, he said, 701 dengue patients were under treatment at various government hospitals in the state on Thursday. How many of these cases were from Kolkata was not known immediately.
Neither Kolkata Municipal Corporation nor the state health department has revealed any data about Kolkata. The KMC had for the first time this year built kiosks, one each in the 144 wards, for dengue awareness. A recorded message was played from the kiosks.
Leaflets with steps to be taken to prevent dengue printed on them were distributed from the kiosks. KMC officials said they were fearing a further rise in dengue infections after the Puja.
“As a large number of people remain outdoors during the Puja, the chances of the spread of the infection remain high. Mosquitoes can bite an infected person and pass on the infection to others,” an official said.
The Aedes aegypti mosquito is the primary transmitter of the dengue virus. The website of the World Health Organization (WHO) says: “The virus is transmitted to humans through the bites of infected female mosquitoes.”
An internal medicine specialist said a dengue patient remains infective for three to seven days from the onset of symptoms. “The mosquito can pick up the virus by biting the person during this period,” he said.
Covid cases
West Bengal on Thursday logged 69 new Covid-19 cases, 318 recoveries and one death.
Currently, there are 2,199 active cases in the state: 2,120 in home isolation and 79 in hospitals, according to the state bulletin. The state’s positive recovery rate was 98.88 per cent and mortality rate 1.02 per cent on Thursday when 4,008 samples were tested.