A 61-year-old resident of Bansdroni, who had tested positive for dengue, died at a city hospital on Tuesday evening.
Subrata Sarkar was admitted to Woodlands Multispeciality Hospital on Monday in a critical condition.
“The person had dengue fever and hypertension. The cause of death was dengue shock syndrome with multi-organ failure, with severe thrombocytopenia (significant blood loss because of haemorrhage) and hypertension,” an official at Woodlands said.
This is the seventh known dengue death in the city this year. Before Sarkar, the last victim was 38-year-old Malina Das, from Shyampukur in north Kolkata, who died on September 13.
Sarkar’s family members told doctors that he had been running a temperature since last Thursday. On Sunday, he fell on his way to the washroom after complaining of chest pain.
A doctor who examined Sarkar at his Bidhan Pally house suspected that he was suffering from dengue.
Family members said Sarkar’s platelet count was over a lakh after he tested positive for dengue on Monday. It slipped to around 25,000 the next day and Sarkar suffered a heart attack, they said.
The family was asked to arrange for a few units of B-positive blood but he passed away later in the evening.
Health officials said 965 dengue cases were detected in the state this year till Tuesday.
Health department officials met on Wednesday to take stock of the dengue situation after reports from several districts, including Kolkata, Howrah, Hooghly, North and South 24-Parganas and Murshidabad, seemed to suggest the virus was spreading.
“Rising trend of dengue has been noticed in parts of Salt Lake, South Dum Dum and Titagarh,” said Siddharth Neogi, director of health services.