DAC confirmed the deaths of the 37-year-old man from Bibwewadi and 34-year-old man from Wagholi as GBS-related.
With one suspected case of Guillain-Barré Syndrome (GBS) reported on Thursday, the total number of GBS cases reported in Pune district has reached 212 (suspected and confirmed). While there have been 11 deaths reported so far amongst GBS patients, the Death Audit Committee (DAC) of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) evaluated four deaths among GBS patients and confirmed two out of them as being due to GBS, taking the total number of confirmed GBS deaths in the district to five, said civic officials.
The DAC of the PMC is helmed by civic health chief Dr Nina Borade and includes experts in epidemic diseases and infectious diseases, physicians, and paediatricians among others. The DAC evaluated four deaths including those of a 63-year-old man from Karve Nagar; a 37-year-old man from Bibwewadi; a 59-year-old man from Khadakwasla; and a 34-year-old man from Wagholi. Out of these, the DAC confirmed the deaths of the 37-year-old man from Bibwewadi and 34-year-old man from Wagholi as GBS-related, civic officials said.
Dr Borade said that the deaths of the 63-year-old man from Karve Nagar and 59-year-old man from Khadakwasla were not due to GBS. “We found that the cause of death of the Karve Nagar resident was acute massive stroke whereas that of the Khadakwasla resident was spinal injury complications. This was found during the evaluation of the cases,” she said. State health officials said that earlier, the DAC had confirmed two deaths as GBS-related, namely that of a 65-year-old man from Nanded Gaon and of a 40-year-old man from Dhayari. Besides, the DAC of the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) has confirmed the death of a 36-year-old man from Pimple Gurav as GBS-related, civic officials said.
Out of the 212 GBS cases reported in Pune district, 185 are confirmed GBS cases and 28 are suspected cases of GBS, said Dr Babita Kamlapurkar, joint director of health services. Of the 212 cases, 42 patients are from the PMC; 95 from the newly added villages in the PMC area; 32 from the PCMC; 33 from Pune Rural; and 10 from other districts, said state health officials. Dr Kamlapurkar said, “We have sent 6,977 water samples from various parts of the city for chemical and biological analysis to the Public Health Laboratory. Of these, 85 water sources were found to be contaminated. In our house-to-house surveillance activities, we surveyed 46,534 houses in the PMC; 27,980 houses in the PCMC; and 13,956 houses in Pune Rural, totalling 88,470 houses.”
