Mystery clouds Thane deaths as toll rises to 20

He said that at least 30 patients had been admitted in various facilities with similar symptoms throughout the district. The death in Thane – Bharat Vaman Mhatre (22) – was a Bhiwandi resident admitted to Chattraptai Shivaji hospital here where he breathed his last late last night. In Kalyan Dombivili Municipal Corporation (KDMC)’s Rukminibai hospital alone 20 patients have been admitted after they complained of fever, nausea and body pain. "Until and unless the actual disease is definitely established we don’t want to take chances since the situation is quite volatile.

Any death can be misconstrued as being caused by medical negligence hence it is appropriate that patients be kept in government hospitals only," pointed out a leading physician from Kalyan who has referred two patients to Rukminibai hospital.

The teams from Natioanl Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune and the Directorate of Health Services (DHS) which descended on the KDMC were taking samples, observations and interviews of people from areas which are most affected. While the NIV team said it will need more time to make comment, DHS joint directors Dr P B Khedekar and Dr Subhash Dodwad were of the opnion that the possibilites were narrowing down to haemoragic dengue or leptospirosis.

"Since both diseases are similar in nature we are following a similar line of supportive symptomatic treatment in all these cases," pointed out Dr Khedekar who added, "the postmortem reports of the deceased also show that the lungs were affected which can happen in both degue as well as leptospirosis." He admitted that it was baffling to note that the quick deterioration of patients, some of whom have died within 8-10 hours of first complaint of discomfort. "Though not entirely unheard of in extreme case of leptospirosis it is very rare," he pointed out. Another piece which doesn’t fit the jig-saw is that the sample of mosquito collected from the affected areas found only culex mosquito. While the aedes species is known to cause dengue the culex is known only to cause filaria or elephantiasis. "We are trying to get a fix on this one. I’m sure once the team from NIV completes its work a clearer picture will emerge," hoped Dr Dodwad. On leptospirosis he explained that apart from rodents, the urine of cats,dogs and cattle could also infect humans through water contamination. "Any contact with the mucous membrane or areas of broken skin can lead to infection."

State family welfare secretary Dr Sudhir Srivastava who was in Thane hasn’t ruled out the possibility of the disease being a mutant variation of the falciparum malaria. "This line of the inquiry should not be abandoned," he pointed out. Meanwhile all the 20 patients suffering from these symptoms have been isolated in a separate ward in the Rukminibai where they are being closely monitored. Of these Meena Singh (35) and Usha Jadhav (30) are reportedly critical. Eknath Gaikwad, minister of state for health visited the patients at Rukminibai hospital today while health minister Digvijay Khanvilkar is expected to come calling tomorrow.