Two people succumbed to suspected dengue in Punjab’s Ajnala.
The deceased have been identified as Asha Rani and Jaspal Singh, both of whom are residents of Ajnala, Hindustan Times reported.
The state has seen a spike in cases of mosquito-borne diseases like dengue, malaria and chikungunya, following incessant rains and waterlogging.
According to Asha Rani's husband Bobby Mahajan, his wife was suffering from high fever since last five days. She was admitted to a private hospital, where they claimed that she had dengue. Mahajan later got her admitted to the Guru Ramdas hospital in Amritsar, but she died while getting treatment.
Jaspal Singh's mother Nirmaljeet Kaur, onher part said her son got fever six days ago and a private hospital in Amristar claimed he was suffering from dengue.
District epidemiologist officer (DEO), Dr Madan Mohan said that the deceased were admitted in private hospitals in Ajnala and they have not yet been diagnosed as being positive with dengue in medical tests from Government Medical College in Amristar. He further went on to reveal that the samples will be tested to know if they were actually suffering from dengue or not.
He also added that they have detected 164 suspected dengue cases in the district this year and out of them 60 have tested positive. However, no confirmed dengue deaths in the district were reported and condition of the patients is stable. DEO explained that they have adequate measures in government hospitals to treat dengue patients.
According to official data of the health department, 548 positive dengue cases were recorded in Amritsar in 2018, which was more than double the total 222 positive cases reported in 2017.
Caused by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, the dengue virus (DEN) comprises four distinct serotypes (DEN-1, DEN-2, DEN-3 and DEN-4) which belong to the genus Flavivirus, family Flaviviridae. Once infected, humans become the main carriers and multipliers of the virus, serving as a source of the virus for uninfected mosquitoes. Interestingly, in humans, recovery from infection by one dengue virus provides lifelong immunity against that particular virus serotype.
However, the immunity confers only partial and transient protection against subsequent infection by the other three serotypes of the virus.
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