Dengue claimed the life of a young doctor on Friday, hardly three days after a 23-yearold MTech student of Jadavpur University (JU) succumbed to the vector-borne disease on Monday. Dr Debdyuti Banerjee, a 28-year-old ophthalmologist affiliated to the staterun Regional Institute of Ophthalmology inside the Medical College Hospital (MCH) complex, died at a private hospital in the southern part of the city on Friday night.
He had been undergoing treatment in the critical care unit (CCU) in the hospital since last week with a fever.
According to hospital sources, his platelets came down to 7,000, severely affecting his kidney. With his death, panic has gripped the MCH campus, including staff quarters. The dengue menace is at the doorstep of the MCH, affecting more than 20 employees who have been staying at the hospital staff quarters since last week.
Sources at the premier teaching hospital said that both dengue and malaria cases have been reported in three blocks of the staff quarters. Some of the patients are undergoing treatment at the School of Tropical Medicine (STM) on the college campus. Several medical students at the college have also been affected by the vector-borne viral disease, sources said.
With this death of the doctor, dengue has claimed 10 lives so far in the city during this monsoon session. According to unofficial sources, around 25,000 people have been affected by the vector-borne disease across the state since January.
An official of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) requesting anonymity said around 2,000 people have been infected with the dengue virus in the city this year