Health
Woman, 35, dies of dengue in Dharan
It is the first dengue death in the sub-metropolis this year; around 1,500 people were infected with the disease.Pradeep Menyangbo
A 35-year-old woman from Dharan Sub-metropolis died of dengue, a mosquito-borne disease, in the course of treatment at BP Koirala Institute of Health Sciences (BPKIHS) on Friday.
Manu Sunuwar of Bajhogara was admitted to the emergency unit of the institute on Friday afternoon. She was diagnosed with dengue during a laboratory test, said Dr Bikas Sah, director at the institute.
Dharan Sub-metropolitan City declared wards 8 and 15 as crisis-hit zones after the Health Directorate of Province 1 announced a dengue emergency in the city.
According to the BPKIHS, around 1,500 people were found infected with dengue this year. Ram Babu Yadav, chief of the sub-metropolis health unit, said Sunuwar is the first person to die of dengue in Dharan. Yadav said Sunuwar died soon after she was referred to the Intensive Care Unit of the institute.
According to the doctors involved in Sunuwar’s treatment, she died of bleeding in the lungs.
“Platelets are tiny fragments of cells that are essential for normal blood clotting. Platelet count of Sunuwar was 181,000. Patients with only 32,000 platelet count have been treated in the hospital. We are researching to find why she died of internal bleeding despite having enough platelets,” said Dr Sah. According to him, a normal person has platelets ranging from 150,000 to 300,000.
Cases of dengue are on the rise in Dharan. The provincial government has allocated a budget of Rs8 million to contain dengue after the federal and provincial governments faced criticism for not taking concrete initiatives to control dengue epidemic in the city.