An AIIMS student died of dengue today, taking the Delhi dengue death toll up to 10 while sparking concerns about sanitation at the country’s premier medical institute.
There are 21 people admitted with dengue at AIIMS, of which 16 belong to the institute itself. Of them, 11 are doctors and students while five are general staffers.
Kamala Raj Kiran, a seventh-semester MBBS student, died of brain haemorrhage this afternoon. The 21-year-old was diagnosed with dengue on Thursday; his condition began to deteriorate thereafter and he had to be shifted to the Intensive Care Unit.
“On Saturday, his (Kiran’s) condition further deteriorated and he died at around 1.30 pm,” Dr Binod Patro, President of the Resident Doctors’ Association (RDA), said. Kiran’s parents, who arrived here only yesterday, have taken his body back to Hyderabad.
Two more students, Kunal and Ajay Kumar Jha, have been shifted to the ICU. However, senior doctors say their condition is under control and they have been shifted there as a precautionary measure.
In October 2003, Bibek Anand Mohanty, an Assistant Professor at the Department of Neuro-Anaesthesia at AIIMS, was on an artificial ventilator for quite some time before dying of dengue. Fourteen hospital employees were diagnosed with the disease then.
This year, AIIMS doctors say, most of the dengue cases have been reported from hostel nos 3, 4 and 5 behind which a drain flows.
A doctor said water was collecting in concrete mixers on construction sites near hostel 4 and 5 . “Even the water-coolers could not be cleaned earlier because they are on the outer side of the rooms on various floors,” said another doctor.
NDMC, the civic agency that has jurisdiction over AIIMS, says it began checking the campus two weeks ago to see if the Aedes aegypti mosquito was breeding but its teams did not come across anything alarming.
After the cases were reported, a special sanitation drive has been launched in the campus. Coolers have been removed from the hostels and the AIIMS Director, senior doctors and the RDA are reviewing the situation. A special fever Out Patient Department was started yesterday. A special team including the Chief Medical Officer (Malaria) was sent to AIIMS today.
“We have already started anti-larval activities and fogging in all the hostels and floors today. But many rooms were locked so the Medical Superintendent told us that he would have them sprayed later,’’ Lieutenant Colonel S K Garg, NDMC’s Medical Health Officer, said. Stickers explaining the preventive measures have been pasted around the hostels.
NDMC has decided to call a meeting of major hospitals including Safdarjung, RML and Lady Hardinge for setting up their own teams for investigating if mosquitoes are breeding.