HYDERABAD: The five-day-old infant, who was the lone survivor of the Mancherial family that succumbed to dengue this week, has also been diagnosed with symptoms similar to the vector-borne disease. However, the ELISA test has failed to confirm if the child is actually dengue-positive.
While the State Health Department has been stressing on the need for ELISA test to declare a patient as dengue-positive, the department itself is unable to confirm the efficacy of the ELISA test.
Speaking to Express, Dr Bheeshma, DMHO of Mancherial, said, “The infant has been admitted to a private hospital in the district. His fever is similar to dengue fever. However, when the ELISA test was administered, it came out negative. But dengue cannot be completely ruled out in practice, regardless of a clinically negative result.” He further added that the child had already undergone a round of SDP (single donor platelet) transfusion and may need multiple rounds. He, however, confirmed that the child was stable and out of danger.
On Thursday, a day after she gave birth to a baby boy, a 29-year-old woman had succumbed to dengue fever in Hyderabad. Soon after, the news of the death of three other members from her family members broke and left a chill down the spine of authorities and the public alike. A committee was constituted by the Department of Public Health to investigate into the four deaths which found that the wife, husband and their daughter had all succumbed to dengue. However, the woman’s father-in-law had succumbed to multiple pre-existing Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases. The husband died in Apollo Hospital at Karimnagar while the daughter died while she was on way to the hospital.