Hospital rapped for claiming woman died of scrub typhus
EXPRESSES ‘REGRET’ Health dept said proper tests not conducted, woman died of other illnesses
GHAZIABAD: The death of a 56-yearold woman after a suspected scrub typhus virus infection has taken a sharp turn after the health department said the no confirmatory tests were conducted to ascertain if the woman had the infection at all, and that she likely died due to several other health complications she suffered from.
The doctor treating her at Yashoda Hospital has apologised to the department after he was issued a show cause notice. Officials said the patient was under treatment for several complications, including depressive psychosis, seizure disorder, lower respiratory tract infection, acute kidney injury and liver injury.
Officials of the district health department on Sunday said there are three patients who have been tested positive for scrub typhus and are being treated in Ghaziabad. Two of them are from Gautam Budh Nagar.
Officials sought to allay fears among residents of any outbreak of the disease following media reports that a person in Ghaziabad had died of scrub typhus.
However, the department denied any deaths in Ghaziabad due to scrub typhus, and said that the woman, who died on September 12, had multiple diseases and the requisite test mandated to confirm scrub typhus was not conducted.
“We served a notice to hospital authorities asking them to explain the matter. They have expressed regret and stated in their reply that the patient was diagnosed with multiple complications. The hospital doctor should have questioned the preliminary scrub typhus finding. No confirmation test was done and no samples were sent to us. So, the death is not due to scrub typhus,” GK Mishra, district malaria officer, said.
“We also conducted checks at around 25 houses around the patient’s residence, but nobody was found with any symptoms of any type of fever. The family told us about several complications and said she visited Varanasi two months ago. After the reply to the show cause and denial of her death due to scrub typhus, the city has no scrub typhus deaths and residents need not panic. There have been media reports claiming deaths due to scrub typhus, but no confirmation has been taken from the health department,” Mishra added.
According to officials, the patient was being treated at Yashoda Hospital in Nehru Nagar and the doctor was issued a show cause notice by the health department on September 17. The notice was issued through the chief medical superintendent of the hospital.
“It was only a suspected case, but unconfirmed as the requisite tests had to be taken up by the health department. The patient was taken LAMA (leaving against medical advice). Had the patient stayed with us, we could have gone to get her confirmatory tests done. She had multiple diseases and we mentioned the several complications in our reply to the notice given by the health department,” said Dr Sangeeta Garg, CMS, Yashoda Hospital.
Health department officials said three patients have tested positive for scrub typhus and are being treated in Ghaziabad. One patient, a 65-year-old man, is from Gorakhpur while two others, aged 66 and 28 respectively, came from Gautam Budh Nagar.
“The three patients were confirmed to have scrub typhus. They are not residents of the city, but have come to Ghaziabad only for treatment. We have also written to Gautam Budh Nagar health officials about the two patients being found tested positive. The confirmation test was done using the ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) test method,” Mishra added.
Health department officials said the indications include fever, rashes, headache and back pain, accompanied by a black mark on the skin, caused by bites of insects like lice, ticks etc.
“The mark will remain for months. There is a specific antibiotic given to patients if they are found positive for scrub typhus. In case of severe infection, some more antibiotics are added to the treatment,” Mishra added.
Ghaziabad chief medical officer Dr NK Gupta said that after media reports of a death by scrub typhus, the department issued an advisory to private hospitals, nursing homes and private pathology labs etc.
“Scrub typhus, like dengue, chikungunya and others, is a notified vector-borne disease and has to be confirmed by the health department through the ELISA confirmatory test. It has come to light that number of people who went for testing at private facilities were given confirmatory reports for such diseases after a Rapid test, which is not conclusive,” Dr Gupta said.
“About 50% of these samples we received of such patients were found negative on our end. So, we issued advisories that two samples from each patient need to be taken, and one of those has to be sent to the health department for confirmation,” he added.
SPECIAL DRIVE FOR DENGUE IN TRANS-HINDON
The district health department has launched a drive in transhindon areas after the number of patients tested positive for dengue rose to 26 as of Saturday. Officials said the drive has been taken up with the help of local resident welfare associations.
“Initially, a check was conducted at Karhera and Pyarelal Colony. Later we found one dengue positive case in each locality. Thereafter, the drive was launched to ensure that dengue larvae are eradicated and no more patients suffer complications. We found that a high-rise in Raj Nagar Extension had a waterlogged basement, but the developer arranged for the water to be flushed out, so no penalty was levied,” Mishra said.
According to officials, the instance of dengue cases have been lower this year as compared to previous years.