Mumbai

3-year-old Andheri girl dies, dengue toll 11 in Mumbai

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MUMBAI: Dengue, the mosquito-borne viral infection, claimed a fourth life this month when a three-year-old girl passed away in an Andheri hospital on Thursday. ManasviMangeshDevrukhakar is the city’s 11th dengue victim of the year, with five patients succumbing over the last 11 days.

Manasvi, a resident of Shivarkar chawl near municipal pump house in Andheri (E), was taken to Holy Spirit Hospital on Wednesday afternoon. “The minute she was brought to the casualty, we could clinically diagnose her as a patient of dengue toxic shock,” sources said. She was immediately transferred to the pediatric ICU, but passed away on Thursday afternoon,” hospital sources said. Tests done in the PICU established the dengue diagnosis, which was conveyed to the local BMC office late in the evening. However, BMC epidemiology officer Dr MangalaGomare said her office had not received any report from the hospital despite personally calling up for information.

On October 27, KEM Hospital resident doctor Shruti Khobragade died in Hinduja Hospital, while a civic official’s husband, S Gaikwad, died in Nair Hospital on November 1. Shubham Tiwari (20) and new mother Nisha Chavan (26) passed away in KEM Hospital, Parel, and Dalvie Hospital, Peddar Road on Sunday and Monday respectively. Meanwhile, seven resident doctors from KEM Hospital who have been living on the campus have been hospitalized with the disease. One of them, Dr Vruj Dhruve, was transferred to Hinduja Hospital in Mahim.

KEM Hospital has emerged as a hotbed for the dengue-spreading Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, with larvae-breeding spots found at various places in the hospital complex. In fact, KEM Hospital’s parent body, the BMC, issued a notice to it about the breeding after Dr Khobragade’s death.

BMC’s doctors say that dengue’s sting has been worse this year because of the delayed winter—the Aedes aegypti mosquitoes do not breed or fare too well in cooler climates. This, combined with the fact that people allow fresh water accumulation which sees these mosquitoes breed, has lengthened dengue’s assault on Mumbai. BMC’s ward offices are carrying out awareness programmes and holding rallies asking people to be aware about breeding in their potted and Feng Shui plants and balconies. In fact, the BMC survey of seven lakh houses each month has revealed that 51% of the breeding spots are located in high rises, 10% in slums and remaining in slum-like or chawls.

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