Toll 23, experts descend on Thane

July 30: Even as the state government has categorically stated that the disease which has claimed 33 lives in Thane and Mumbai since June ...

July 30: Even as the state government has categorically stated that the disease which has claimed 33 lives in Thane and Mumbai since June is leptospirosis, medical experts are still divided on the issue. Yet to arrive at a diagnosis, experts from Mumbai, Delhi, Pune and even Port Blair have converged on Thane district, where the illness claimed its 23rd victim today. The toll in Mumbai stands at 10.

Stemming the panic and the march of the illness, medical teams are here from the state Directorate of Health Services DHS, the Haffkine Institute, Parel, the National Institute of Virology NIV, Pune, and the National Institute of Communicable Diseases, Delhi. Fanning out in both Mumbai and Thane, they are collecting samples of sputum, blood and mosquitoes and are unlikely to arrive at a diagnosis till Wednesday. Refusing to be categorical, they have narrowed the possibilities to haemorrhagic dengue or pulmonary leptospirosis.

Meanwhile, three more people have died, all of them from Vasai, while another two deaths have been reported from Dombivli. The local civic hospital in the township has, however, denied any link to the illness. 8220;Unless it is confirmed how can we say that these deaths are also due to the same disease,8221; asks medical officer-in-charge of the Kalyan Dombivli Municipal corporation, Dr S More.

A Rapid Response Team RRT of the DHS, including a physician, a microbiologist, an epidemiologist and an entomologist, which was kept on stand-by was today rushed to Kalyan, Mira-Bhayander and Vasai and are collecting samples of blood and mosquitoes. Joint Director, DHS, Dr P B Khedekar said that they had found aedes mosquito larvae in stagnant water samples collected from the affected areas.

8220;Till Saturday, we had found only the culex mosquito. But the discovery of the aedes larvae has generated hope that we may be nearer to discovering what the patients are suffering from,8221; said Khedekar, adding that the possibilities had narrowed down to haemorrhagic dengue or pulmonary liptospirosis. He said that in both cases the line of treatment is the same. NIV epidemiologist Dr S Rao says that a final picture will emerge on Wednesday. 8220;Isolating the virus and completing the microbiological procedures takes at least 48 hours,8221; he explains. 8220;It could be leptospirosis, dengue or a combination of both.8221;

State Health Minister Digvijay Khnvilkar, who visited Thane today, says he has alerted the Centre about the problem. 8220;Dr L Saigal of the National Institute of Communicable Diseases, Delhi, is being brought here to help supervise,8221; he says.

Says Dr Vievek Bhoslae, president of the local chapter of the Indian Medical Association: 8220;The discovery of the aedes mosquito larvae puts a question mark whether it is indeed leptospirosis.8221; Dr Vijay Char from Port Blair says he would rather wait for further tests before venturing a diagnosis. 8220;Except for the Andaman amp; Nicobar islands, where the incidence of leptospirosis is high, the disease is quite rare in other parts of the country,8221; he says. While pointing out there have been isolated incidents of outbreaks like in Sindhudurg in 1998 he adds: 8220;The disease is usually found in Latin America.8221;