PUNE: Two young people being treated for Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS) in different Pune hospitals died over the past 48 hours, taking casualties linked to the outbreak in Maharashtra to 19. Pune has had the maximum number of fatal cases with 11.
Overall, 23 GBS patients have died in India – Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Tamil Nadu and Bengal have reported a death each – since the Pune cluster attributed to water contamination was detected on Jan 9. A 26-year-old woman from Nanded City township and a 37-year-old man from Daund, about 80km from Pune, were the latest casualties. The latter succumbed to the rare but treatable infection at Sassoon General Hospital late Monday.
The woman, who died Tuesday, had been first admitted to a private hospital on Jan 22 but was moved to another facility after the bill shot up to Rs 3 lakh, a kin said. She was on ventilator support at Navale Hospital for around 25 days.
The preliminary cause of death was septicaemic shock with multi-organ dysfunction syndrome and fulminant GBS. Of the 36 people in Pune in intensive care with symptoms of GBS, 16 were on ventilator support until Wednesday evening. The health department didn’t report any new cases, which stand at 211, with most patients being from Pune and its nearby areas.