Mystery Disease grips Panchkula Civil Hospital, PGI Chandigarh to conduct entomological survey

Panchkula: The Panchkula Civil hospital in Sector 6 has been witnessing a massive influx of patients complaining of high-grade fever resulting in a shortage of beds in the hospital's emergency ward, with the doctors being unable to find the cause of it.

The health authorities on Friday attributed the cause of around 15 mysterious deaths in the past month to fever. The deaths have been reported from Pinjore and Kalka, both in the district's periphery. 

Also Read:PGI Chandigarh refuses to continue joint MSc nuclear medicine course with Panjab University

The beds in the emergency ward are completely occupied by patients of all age groups, and two patients could be seen sharing one bed. According to the doctors, the symptoms shown by the patients include fever over 101 F, severe body ache, painful eyes, bleeding, and low platelet count reports the Hindustan Times. 

The hospital authorities have reportedly approached the PGIMER for help. The chief medical officer (CMO), Dr. Mukta Kumar, said, "We have requested the head of the PGIMER epidemiology department to send teams here to establish the reason behind this sudden rise in fever cases."

According to Dr. Mankirat, spokesperson for the CMO, nearly 42 patients with high-grade fever have been admitted to the hospital. The official said, "As many as 80% of the patients arriving at the Internal Medicine OPD, which receives a footfall of around 800 patients a day, have a high fever." He added, "Though all deceased patients had a high fever, their medical reports were negative for dengue, the most common cause of fever these days. We have sought PGIMER's help to ascertain the cause."

Another doctor said, "Of the total patients arriving in the OPD, we are admitting those who have bleeding complications, like nasal bleeding or blood in urine, platelet count less than 20,000 or low blood pressure, all symptoms of dengue shock syndrome."

A PGIMER-based expert said, "There could be multiple reasons behind the fever. It could be caused by tropical disease, dengue, scrub typhus, viral infection, or viral haemorrhagic fevers. We will have to check all clinical parameters to diagnose the disease (s), for which a number of tests will have to be conducted."

Experts from PGIMER's epidemiology department, along with the doctors of the civil hospital, examined data and reports on Friday and asked for a fresh collection of samples. 

There has not been a rise in such cases in PGIMER. Dr. RR Sharma, head of the blood transfusion department, said, "We are getting 10-12 demands for platelets daily, which is higher than August, but quite less compared to this time last year when the demand was as high as 100 a day."

The PGI would be conducting an entomological survey to investigate the reason on war footing to be led by Prof Arun Aggarwal, head of the department of community medicine and school for public health, PGI. 

The team would visit the homes of the deceased and collect their medical history from Saturday, reports the Times of India. "It involves collating the data of their symptoms, comorbidities, and medication, " adding, "We have been approached by the civic hospital doctors to find out the reason for the deaths. They informed us the deaths were more unusual than dengue deaths, which are not sudden. There was no dip in the platelet counts in these patients.

The epidemiologist stationed in the station would be submitting the report after the surveillance. A senior doctor at Panchkula hospital said, "These patients had high-grade fever, anxiety, and restlessness. They were tested negative for dengue using ELISA test."

A PGI doctor said, "After the survey and interview of the patients and their relatives if need be, we will engage with multi-disciplinary teams. Also, we will monitor more such cases, which will come to the hospital."

According to UT director health services, Dr. Suman Singh, Chandigarh government hospitals are also receiving fever cases, but the figure is not alarming and is similar to previous trends. 

According to Kalka MLA Pardeep Chaudhary, people were dying due to the high fever. The MLA said, "I have myself met the deceased patients' families." 

Lajja Ram, president, Residents' Welfare Association, Rathpur Colony, Pinjore, told the Hindustan Times, "Six people have died in our colony, where there is a sick patient in every household. In some families, two to three members are on bed rest. There is an outbreak and the health department is discharging people after only giving them IV fluids."

There are long queues of patients who are waiting to get examined, which could be seen in Urban Polyclinic in Pinjore. The hospital officials added 10 more beds to the hospital amidst the rush on Thursday. 

According to officials, labs are overwhelmed with samples which have further led to longer waits for patients requiring sample collection. A senior official at the civil hospital, Sector 6 said, "Compared to around 40 on Thursday, the number of admitted patients grew to around 80 on Friday. In the internal medicine OPD, over 800 people are turning up in a day with complaints of high fever."

A resident, Kamlesh Kant said, "My three-year-old daughter is writhing in pain back home. Her samples were given a day before, but despite visiting the lab thrice, I was asked to come back the next day to collect the report."

Rathpur Colony resident Pawan Kumar Bhatt whose 13-year-old son passed away due to the disease said, "It was his birthday on September 8 when he fell sick. In the evening, he had a 101 F fever, so we took him to a government hospital. As I was not satisfied with their care, I moved him to a private facility, but he died within 10 hours."

Similarly, a mother of a deceased 15-year-old boy said, "It's been over three weeks, but I still don't know what happened to my child? Doctors never clarified anything." 

Also Read:PGIMER to hold CME Workshop On Therapeutic Apheresis, Cellular Therapy, Check out registration details, schedule