Chikungunya is taking its toll in Delhi, with at least four deaths due to the vector-borne disease reported in the last two days in the national capital where its number of cases have crossed over 1,000 this season.
Of the three fatalities recorded today, two of them took place at the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital on Tuesday while a 22-year-old girl succumbed to the disease on September 1 at Hindu Rao Hospital, officials said.
65-year-old Ramendra Pandey on Monday had also died of chikungunya at the same hospital, in what could be the first such death in the national capital.
Dr B S Rana, Chairman, Board of Management of Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, said all the three deaths which took place yesterday, the victims were above 60 years.
“Uday Shanker of Dwarka was admitted on September 11 and he died on September 12. His RT-PCR test for chikungunya had come positive. He had come to our OPD and then admitted.
“Ashok Chauhan, 62, from Aligarh also died of chikungunya yesterday. He too was admitted in ICU on September 11 and his RT-PCR test came positive,” hospital authorities said.
Doctors say that chikungunya is not a life-threatening disease in general, but in rare cases leads to complications that prove fatal, especially in children and old persons.
