Doctor’s child, govt health assistant die from dengue in Dhaka

A doctor’s child and a health assistant of a government facility have died from dengue during treatment in Dhaka amid a Bangladesh-wide outbreak of the viral fever.

The dead are 2 years and 10 months old Raj Chowdhury and Tapan Kumar Mandal, 35.

Raj, son of the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases Assistant Registrar Dr Nirmal Kanti Chowdhury, died at the Shishu Hospital on Thursday afternoon.

Abdul Hakim, a spokesman for the hospital, confirmed the news of Raj’s death to bdnews24.com.

Dr Atiqul Islam at the hospital’s Paediatric Intensive Care Unit said Raj was admitted on Wednesday afternoon.

“He suffered shock syndrome,” the doctor said.

Mandal, a health assistant from Madaripur, died at the Bangladesh Medical College Hospital in the morning.

He was infected by the mosquito-borne dengue virus on Aug 11 when he came to the capital to join Dhaka South City Corporation’s efforts to tackle the outbreak, Madaripur Civil Surgeon Shafiqul Islam told bdnews24.com.

Mandal returned to Madaripur during the Eid-ul-Azha holidays and got admitted to the Madaripur General Hospital first and was transferred to the Faridpur Medical College Hospital, Shafiqul said.

“He was taken to the Bangladesh Medical College Hospital when the count of platelet in his blood dropped to 30,000. He was kept at the Intensive Care Unit there,” the civil surgeon said.

The normal level of platelets in blood is between 150,000 and 450,000 per microliter.

Mandal was brought to the hospital in a critical condition, its director Dr Sabur Mia told bdnews24.com.

“He was brain dead. He finally died around 11am,” the doctor said.

The official death toll in the dengue outbreak so far this year is 40, but bdnews24.com has gathered information of 128 deaths from doctors of different hospitals across the country.