Four-year-old dies of dengue at ICH

Another child, also from city, dies of bacterial infection

Two children, who were residents of localities within the Chennai Corporation limits, died at the Institute of Child Health (ICH), Egmore, this week. While one died due to dengue, the other died because of an infection, doctors said.

Nitish (4) had been suffering from a fever for five days and was treated at private hospitals before being referred to the ICH early this week.

His family lives on Janakinagar First Main Road, Maduravoyal.

Fever in children

The area has seen a spurt of fever cases among children, city health officials said.

The boy died at the ICH two days ago. D. Saminathan, director, ICH, confirmed it to be a case of dengue death.

Another victim, Jessie (6), died of fever with symptoms of dengue in the ICH on Thursday, city health officials said. Jessie’s family lives on Korattur MGR Street, Thanthai Periyar Nagar.

Jessie was admitted with fever on Wednesday.

She died at 5.30 a.m. on Thursday.

However, the ICH director said Jessie’s death was not due to dengue.

“The child had fever for seven days with bleeding. The death was due to septic shock and bacterial infection. We have sent samples for a culture,” he said.

While both these cases are from within the Corporation limits, the city’s neighbouring districts, Tiruvallur and Kancheepuram, have witnessed more fever deaths in the past few months.

Meanwhile, the city’s suburbs are reporting more cases of dengue, health officials said.

‘100 clinics don’t comply’

Officials said that most hospitals in the extended areas of the Corporation did not comply with the requirement on the part of all clinics to report cases of fever.

“More than 100 clinics have failed to comply with the requisition. They will render themselves liable for prosecution under section 134 of the Tamil Nadu Public Health Act,” said an official. The civic body had asked the hospitals to notify the details of such patients on the day of admission itself.

Previous cases

An 8-year-old girl from Kancheepuram district died at the ICH two weeks ago.

In mid-October, three children, including two siblings, from different suburbs of the city died at the hospital. There were also several fever-related deaths of children from Tiruvallur district in August and September.

In Tiruvallur district, four deaths were of children from two adjoining villages.

According to the website of the National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme, Tamil Nadu has had 2,108 cases of dengue and five deaths as of November 20 this year.