SUSPECTED LEPTO DEATH

The city has recorded its third death, suspected to have been caused by leptospirosis.

However, senior civic heath official maintain that the cause of death of the 17-yearold, a Worli resident, will be confirmed only after the epidemiology death review committee report is submitted. According to doctors, the teen had been toiling for a long time in rainwater on July 8 near the Bandra-Worli sea link, after which he was detected with leptospirosis symptoms. “Like the other two victims, the boy failed to secure immediate medical help, due to which he died within 24 hours of being hospitalised on July 13,” said a doctor.

Dr Padmaja Keskar, executive health officer, said that his condition deteriorated due to which doctors referred him to a tertiary hospital but he refused to do so. “Within three days of being drenched in the rain, he displayed symptoms like fever, headache and body pain, after which he went to a private medical practitioner. But he developed respiratory problems and there was blood in his vomit. He had to be put on ventilator as soon as he was admitted to the King Edward Memorial Hospital (KEM) on July 12,” she added.

Dr Keskar said as of now, his death is suspected to be due to leptospirosis, as the committee is yet to scrutinise the case. “After analysing the medical aspects of the three probable leptospirosis deaths in June, two of the deaths were determined to be due to leptospirosis. This latest case is yet to be analysed by the committee,” added Keskar.

As per reports from the civic health department, a total of 574 houses and 1,926 people were screened and two cases of fever, two cases of upper respiratory tract infection and three cases of diarrhoeal vomiting were detected and referred to nearby dispensaries. Moreover, in the first 15 days of July 2018, 369 cases of probable dengue or dengue-like illnesses were admitted to various civic hospitals.