Two persons in the Chennai Metropolitan Area died of fever due to unknown origins, but suspected to be dengue, on Friday, and public health officials in the city have been alerted.
The first death was reported at the Government Royapettah Hospital around 2.30 a.m.. Samji Solomon Raja, a 26-year-old resident of Ice House police quarters at Triplicane, was admitted to the hospital on Tuesday. He was an executive with a textile showroom on Luz Church Road.
“Yesterday, I was asked to give the blood samples of my brother for dengue test. I took to samples to the King Institute of Preventive Medicine. The results would have come on Tuesday,” said Raja’s younger brother Ranjith. The patient was unable to walk or eat and his urine had turned yellow.
The medical report stated that Raja died of “fever of unknown origin, acute respiratory distress syndrome, multi-organ dysfunction syndrome followed by sepsis and cardio-respiratory arrest.”
According to A. Elango, Resident Medical Officer of the hospital, Raja had been suffering from fever for 20 days and complained of shivering and pain on all four limbs.
“Investigations were carried out, including for HIV-AIDS. The results showed he had pancytopenia, a condition in which red blood cells, white blood cells and platelet count fall drastically.”
In the second case, R. Sudhakar, a class XII student, was declared brought dead at the Government General Hospital. His elder brother Ayannar, an electrician at SRM University, said his brother had been suffering from fever for the last three days and was brought to the government hospital after doctors of a private hospital referred him there. He was a resident of Saktivel Nagar in Thiruverkaadu. “He was good at studies. We wanted him to study engineering,” said his mother Alamelu.
On Saturday, he had complained of congestion and breathing problem. “The fever did not go down. We rushed to him another specialist nearby,” his mother added. Sudhakar’s father is a mason, while his mother is a house wife.
