A 13-year-old boy from New Alipore’s Sahapur Colony died of dengue on Wednesday morning.
Srijan Bose was first admitted to a hospital near Minto Park, said an official of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation. He was shifted to Apollo Multispeciality Hospitals on Tuesday, an official at the hospital said.
The boy died at 6.05am on Wednesday.
“The death certificate mentions dengue,” said a KMC official.
The boy tested positive for dengue on August 20.
“His condition deteriorated rapidly within a few days,” said the KMC official.
Over 700 dengue cases have been reported in Kolkata since January this year, KMC sources said. A number of people, including children, have died of the disease. The KMC, however, has not commented on the number of dengue deaths.
A KMC official said Srijan was a student of South Point school.
Dengue is caused by a virus that is spread by Aedes mosquitoes, which breed in stagnant freshwater.
“The egg of an Aedes mosquito can turn into an adult in seven days. So it is important to drain out stagnant water at least once in seven days,” said an entomologist.
Entomologists have pointed out multiple times that destroying mosquito-breeding sites is the most important measure in combating dengue and other vector-borne diseases, such as malaria.
The website of WHO says “the best preventive measure for areas infested with Aedes mosquito is to eliminate the mosquitoes’ egg laying sites — called source reduction”.
“Lowering the number of eggs, larvae and pupae will reduce the number of emerging adult mosquitoes and the transmission of the disease,” the WHO says.