KOLKATA: Bengal recorded the first kala-azar death of the year on Wednesday when a 47-year-old man succumbed to the infection at a Kolkata hospital. Avadesh Paswan, the victim, was a resident of Bihar who fell ill during a visit to his in-laws’ place in Howrah’s Bally. With this, the state has recorded 10 kala-azar cases this year till August. In Bengal, Habibpur in Malda is known to be endemic for kala-azar while Kolkata is not among the endemic zone.
According to sources, Paswan was visiting his in-laws’ place from Bihar and had been complaining of recurrent fever. As his fever refused to subside, he was admitted at Howrah District Hospital three days ago. His condition deteriorated rapidly and he was shifted to a private hospital in Kolkata the next day. The kala-azar infection was detected at the Kolkata hospital. The patient was then shifted to School of Tropical Medicine where he died within 24 hours of admission in the hospital’s ICU.
“We don’t come across kala-azar deaths now-a-days because there is very good medications that comes from the government. But the infection can prove highly fatal if detection and treatment is delayed,” said infectious diseases specialist Sayan Chakrabarty of AMRI Dhakuria.
Even as Bengal sees stray kala-azar deaths each year, this death comes after a gap of one year. In 2022, the state logged a total of 57 cases with zero deaths. A slow progressing disease caused by protozoan parasites of genus Leishmania these parasites are transmitted by an infected female phlebotomine sandfly.
According to sources, Paswan was visiting his in-laws’ place from Bihar and had been complaining of recurrent fever. As his fever refused to subside, he was admitted at Howrah District Hospital three days ago. His condition deteriorated rapidly and he was shifted to a private hospital in Kolkata the next day. The kala-azar infection was detected at the Kolkata hospital. The patient was then shifted to School of Tropical Medicine where he died within 24 hours of admission in the hospital’s ICU.
“We don’t come across kala-azar deaths now-a-days because there is very good medications that comes from the government. But the infection can prove highly fatal if detection and treatment is delayed,” said infectious diseases specialist Sayan Chakrabarty of AMRI Dhakuria.
Even as Bengal sees stray kala-azar deaths each year, this death comes after a gap of one year. In 2022, the state logged a total of 57 cases with zero deaths. A slow progressing disease caused by protozoan parasites of genus Leishmania these parasites are transmitted by an infected female phlebotomine sandfly.
