A six-year-old girl died of suspected dengue at the Indira Gandhi Institute of Child Health (IGICH) on Monday morning.
Huda Tabassum was very critical when she was brought to the hospital four hours before her death, said Dr Shivanand, director of IGICH.
“Huda might have died of dengue shock syndrome. We are yet to confirm it, as the test results have not arrived,” he said. Dr Shivanand said that the hospital receives 10-15 cases of fever in a day, but he was not sure if all the cases are dengue.
“When private hospitals are not able to handle such critical fever cases, they refer patients to our hospital,” he said.
Huda, daughter of a vegetable vendor at Vijinapura in KR Puram, was admitted to Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital. Later, she was shifted to a private hospital near her residence, and on Sunday night she was referred to IGICH.
However, Dr Lokesh, BBMP’s nodal officer for dengue, said Huda had tested negative for dengue at Bowring Hospital. “The girl might have died of some other viral infection. However, the report at the IGICH is awaited,” he added.
Cases on the rise
Vijinapura, a ward in KR Puram, has reported many fever cases of late. One confirmed dengue death case was also reported from here. Residents of the erstwhileCMC area store water for weeks together due to acute shortage. Gayathri, a resident, said that water supplied through tanker is not good.
Corporator Sugumar said despite conducting several awareness camps, the residents of Vijinapura were not co-operating. “Health teams visited every house and advised residents to empty the stored water.
However, many of them refused as there is shortage of water supply. Hardly anybody followed the instructions to cover the stored water. There are also some people who are completely aware of dengue fever,” Sugumar added.