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Firozabad: Sarvesh Kumar looks too tired to mourn. He buried three of his five children last week – all lost to a “mysterious” viral fever that killed 39 people, 32 of them children, in Firozabad.
The laborer stared blankly, telling about the deaths of Akash, 3, Ramu, 7 and Mohini, 10. She told ThePrint: “The district hospital refused to admit Ramu even though I begged him. I knew my son was very ill. But he asked me to take him to Agra. Ramu died in my lap on the way. And when I returned to the hospital after burying her, my Mohini was also gone.” So was the sky.
District officials are battling to find the exact cause and cure for this “strange disease with unusual symptoms”.
District magistrate Chandra Vijay Singh told ThePrint that seven adults have also died of fever since the first case was reported on August 20. Almost all of them were poor, he said.
Reports of the disease have started pouring in from other districts of western Uttar Pradesh such as Mathura, Agra, Mainpuri, Etah and Kasganj. report good In The Times of India. But Firozabad is the most affected.
Uttar Pradesh Additional Health Secretary Amit Mohan Prasad, however, dismissed the suggestion that the disease has spread. “The only major outbreak is in Firozabad, followed by Mathura with few cases. Other districts are fine,” he said.
ThePrint reached out to Neetu Kulshrestha, the chief medical officer of Firozabad, who was transferred on Wednesday, for a comment, but did not respond to calls and messages.
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What exactly is disease?
Firozabad district is currently treating the disease as a viral fever with dengue-like symptoms. Reported symptoms include fever, chills, body aches, headache, dehydration, a rapid drop in platelet count, and abdominal pain.
District officials told ThePrint that many of the children who died were confirmed to have dengue.
Singh said: “Although it is dengue season, some children showed unusual symptoms along with fever, such as swelling of the liver and water retention in the abdomen.”
He said that a team of doctors has arrived from Lucknow to study the disease. The samples have also been sent to Lucknow and National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune for further testing. Singh said: “The research will tell whether it is a separate disease or a new type of dengue virus.”
Eleven days after the outbreak emerged, health officials are relying on the NS1 rapid test to check for dengue. The district had not conducted the ELISA (enzyme-linked immunoassay) test – which is considered more reliable – to test for dengue till August 31.
Firozabad Chief Medical Superintendent Alok Kumar believes that rapid tests help doctors start treatment early. “These are 90 per cent accurate, so we haven’t felt the need for ELISA yet,” Kumar said.
He said the district had tested 245 people on August 30, and 27 were positive for dengue. “Since the symptoms are largely those of dengue or viral fever, we are treating it as such. But some patterns are just bizarre. I am sure research will show that it is a different disease altogether,” Kumar told ThePrint.
Additional health secretary Prasad said that any child tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 has since been ruled out for Covid.
The state is also looking at the possibility of a bacterial infection ‘scrub typhus’ after six people died of the disease in Mathura. Prasad told ThePrint: “Samples from patients in Mathura tested positive for scrub typhus – a communicable disease spread by rodents. We are also checking samples for bacteria in Firozabad.
Scrub typhus is a bacterial infection caused by the Orientia tsutsugamushi bacteria and is transmitted by the bite of infected larval mites.
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Disappointment in Firozabad
The situation in Firozabad is worrying. There are long queues of parents with children crying in front of pharmacies and hospitals. Many people want their children to be admitted.
The district hospital looked overwhelmed, reminiscent of the panic outside medical centers during the second wave of Covid. But this time most of the children are suffering, who are groping the corners of their mother’s saris, burning with fever and moaning in pain.
At Autonomous State Medical (SM) College, Firozabad, some parents were pleading with doctors to give priority to their children.
One of them, Ruby along with her two-month-old daughter Komal, was running around in search of help. Foam was coming out of the girl’s mouth. Ruby said that the girl was getting weaker moment by moment. “Her platelet count is low, but the hospital wants another test. I just want to get him admitted but no one is listening.”
Most parents were equipped with paracetamol, vitamin tablets and hydrating solutions.
At least 50 of them went to ThePrint’s team and pleaded for help. “They are telling us to patiently line up when our children are dying. Some of us are being asked to move to private facilities. This is abuse,” said one of them.
LK Gupta, Head of Pediatrics, SM Medical College said that dengue is a virus and there is no cure for it. He told ThePrint: “We can give medicines to strengthen the immune system and advise them to stay hydrated. We are giving blood to people with low platelet count. More serious people are being admitted to the hospital.”
The district magistrate as well as local doctors are blaming the outbreak for water logging, open drains and water accumulated in the houses.
In Firozabad’s Sudama Nagar, where residents say at least 12 children have died in the past 10 days, people describe the state of poor sanitation.
“Our tap water is untreated, black and smells of faeces. It gives us rashes,” said Shivani, a resident of the area, which has mostly slums.
Residents said the cleaning of drains was done and there was a ruckus in the area only after Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s visit was announced last month.
Guddi, 30, said: “We have not seen anyone with a broom in the last four years. But a day before Yogi’s visit, the roads were cleaned four times. At least four inches of debris was removed from the drains. Today it looks neat but usually they are a danger.”
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