Delhi: 65-yr-old is first chikungunya death

R Pandey, a resident of Ghaziabad, died at 4:30 am at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital (SGRH), officials said, adding that the “cause of death was chikungunya with sepsis."

In the first confirmed death due to chikungunya in the national capital region, a 65-year-old man succumbed to the mosquito-borne infection at a private Delhi hospital on Monday. R Pandey, a resident of Ghaziabad, died at 4:30 am at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital (SGRH), officials said, adding that the “cause of death was chikungunya with sepsis”. Sources said Pandey was shifted from Ghaziabad’s Yashoda Hospital at 10.30 pm on Saturday “in a critical condition”.

“He was shifted to the ICU at SGRH. He was being looked after by a team from the department of internal medicine,” an official said. Sources said tests conducted on the patient had revealed a “high viral count”. According to the doctors, chikungunya infections typically cause high levels of viremia — the presence of virus in the blood.

“The RT-PCR, a virological test, was conducted on the patient. This test is considered the fastest method to confirm the disease,” the official said. Doctors said that chikungunya usually has a very low mortality rate, though in older people, the disease can contribute to the cause of death because of complications. While there is no cure for chikungunya, treatment is focused on relieving symptoms like fever, muscle pain, headache, nausea, fatigue and rash.

Most patients recover fully, even though the joint pain may persist for several months and, in some cases, years. Symptoms generally develop after an incubation period of four to seven days and, in most cases, disappear after five to seven days even without treatment. In a few cases, eye, neurological and heart complications, and gastrointestinal complaints, have been reported. The infection may go unrecognised if symptoms are mild, or may be misdiagnosed in areas where dengue too occurs.

Kaunain Sheriff M

Kaunain Sheriff M is an award-winning investigative journalist and the National Health Editor at The Indian Express. He is the author of Johnson & Johnson Files: The Indian Secrets of a Global Giant, an investigation into one of the world’s most powerful pharmaceutical companies. With over a decade of experience, Kaunain brings deep expertise in three areas of investigative journalism: law, health, and data. He currently leads The Indian Express newsroom’s in-depth coverage of health. His work has earned some of the most prestigious honours in journalism, including the Ramnath Goenka Award for Excellence in Journalism, the Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) Award, and the Mumbai Press Club’s Red Ink Award. Kaunain has also collaborated on major global investigations. He was part of the Implant Files project with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which exposed malpractices in the medical device industry across the world. He also contributed to an international investigation that uncovered how a Chinese big-data firm was monitoring thousands of prominent Indian individuals and institutions in real time. Over the years, he has reported on several high-profile criminal trials, including the Hashimpura massacre, the 2G spectrum scam, and the coal block allocation case. Within The Indian Express, he has been honoured three times with the Indian Express Excellence Award for his investigations—on the anti-Sikh riots, the Vyapam exam scam, and the abuse of the National Security Act in Uttar Pradesh. ... Read More

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