Hospitals said both tested positive for dengue and both death certificates say dengue
Dengue killed two people in Kolkata on Thursday. The tragic twist to the statistic: one victim was the father and the other his son.
Civic authorities are examining medical records to confirm the cause of death as the virus has not been reported from this area at all this year. In Kolkata city, 226 dengue cases have been detected so far. But no deaths were reported till the father and the son died on Thursday.
53-year-old Siddharth Ghosh, an employee in a government college in its electrical maintenance department, and his 12-year-old son Dip died within 11 hours of each other. The bereaved wife and mother has barely been in her senses since then.
"We finished performing the father's last rites and came home to hear his son too had died. In one day, a family destroyed," said Sujata Ghorami, Dip's aunt.
Mr Ghosh was admitted to hospital on Sunday and died on September 7 at 3 am. Dip went to hospital on Tuesday and died on Thursday at 2 pm. Both had high fever when admitted.
The Ghosh family lives in a government housing colony near upscale Gariahat in south Kolkata. But the colony is run down. There is no running water in the taps, the slightest rain turns the open spaces into puddles. Neighbours accuse the civic body of apathy.
Durga Naskar, one of the residents in the colony, said, "After the death of the father and son, suddenly they have started spraying pesticide, putting gamaxene powder and all that. Today we are feeling that a municipal corporation exists.
"Had they done this regularly, the boy and his father may have been alive today," said another neighbor Soma Koyal.
Civic officials are however questioning the cause of death. Mayor in Council, Health, of Kolkata Municipal Corporation, Mr Atin Ghosh, said, the father had undergone a bypass surgery six months ago and was depressed about his son who suffered from epilepsy. And causes related to those illnesses may have led to the deaths.
They will examine hospital records to be absolutely sure. As of now, hospitals have said both tested positive for dengue and both death certificates say dengue.