Many Dengue Patients In Delhi Developing Liver Dysfunction: Doctors

Amid a rise in dengue cases in Delhi, doctors in several city hospitals said many patients of the vector-borne disease are developing complications such as liver dysfunction and capillary leak.

More than 900 cases of dengue have been reported in the capital in October, taking the infection tally to 1,876 so far this year, according to a civic report issued on Tuesday.

The 939 cases, recorded till October 19, is nearly half of the total number of dengue cases logged this year.

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Wednesday said the government is monitoring the data and stressed that cases are rising but there have been no fatalities.

Dr Sumit Ray, head of critical care at Holy Family Hospital in Okhla, said 37 patients are presently admitted to their facility.

"On an average, every day six to 10 patients are getting admitted. Patients are developing issues like severe liver dysfunction and capillary leak. These are young patients aged between 20-40 years," he said.

Elaborating about the reasons, he said the patients developing such complications could be either due dysregulated immune response or movement of people after a gap of two years due to Covid.

"Ninety per cent of the people have a balanced immune response but in some cases, the immune system is over responsive or under-responsive. Both the situations are not good for patients.

"Also, people in that age group might be seeing more complications since they comprise the working population and have to step out more often as compared to the elderly who mostly stay at home," he opined.

Dr Sushila Kataria, senior director - Internal Medicine at Medanta in Gurugram, said they were seeing 10 patients every day on an average for the last three weeks, but said the numbers are expected to decline in the next few days.

She stressed that 'liver involvement' is not a rare in dengue and asserted that cases could be severe this time as there were Covid-related restrictions in place for the last two years and now people are stepping out more as the economy has opened up.

"The patients getting admitted are usually those who have warning symptoms or some complications like their kidney or liver are severely affected. About 60 per cent to 80 per cent will have liver derangement in dengue. Sometimes, the liver enzymes that should be below 50, are rising up to 20,000," she said.

The doctor also said usually dengue cases would start in July but due to the delay in rains, the cases have shifted to September and October.

Last year, 9,613 dengue cases were recorded in the city, the highest since 2015, along with 23 deaths -- the highest since 2016.

In 2018, Delhi had reported 1,310 dengue cases during the January 1-October 19 period, according to the report. The corresponding figures in 2019, 2020 and 2021 were 833, 489 and 1,006, respectively.

Ten deaths each were reported due to dengue in 2016 and 2017, four in 2018 and two in 2019.

The official data showed that 4,431 dengue cases were recorded in Delhi in 2016, 4,726 in 2017, 2,798 in 2018, 2,036 in 2019 and 1,072 in 2020.

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