Dengue kills Kolkata varsity girl, toll 15

KOLKATA/ARAMBAGH: A student of Rabindra Bharati University, who lived in a Salt Lake hostel, died of dengue-related complications on Monday while being brought to a Kolkata hospital from her hometown in Arambagh, some 90km away.
"RBU authorities told us that my daughter Srija had dengue. She had fever with no remission for about five days.We brought her home on Sunday.When she conti nued to ha0ve very high fever, we took her to Araambagh hospital which referred her to Kolkata.On the way, she started shivering and we rushed her to a nursing home in Nalikul. She died moments after they put her on IV drip," said the sobbing father Ramkrishna Ghosh, a schoolteacher in Kamarpukur.
Late Tuesday night, a seven-year-old girl, Rai Saha, died of an "unknown fever" at a nursing home in Kolkata. There is no confirmation if it was dengue.
The statewide dengue de ath toll has reached 15 although the health department is yet to confirm Srija's death as one. Arambagh civic chairman Swapan Nandi, howe ver, confirmed it was dengue."The state department has messaged me saying that Srija had dengue. It'd have been better if she were taken to a hospital in Kolkata from the RBU hostel rather than being brought home," Nandi said.
Dengue has triggered pa nic in the posh Salt Lake township. Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation has declared Duttabad a 'high risk dengue zone'.
The corporation carried out a thorough inspection of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan on Tuesday and declared it free from mosquito larvae. Classes were suspended last Tuesday following the death of two students from dengue, which triggered agitation by parents.Classes XI and XII will resume from Wednesday and the rest of the school will be back on August 16. MMiC-health Pranay Roy inspected the campus and was satisfied with the clean-up. "We did not find stagnant water anywhere. It is now larvae free," Roy said. "We have done some thorough cleaning in the last few days and the civic authorities have declared the school larvae free," said principal Rekha Vaisya.
Only a few hours before this, local councillor Nirmal Dutta had said that they had found mosquito larvae in the water tanks of the school. Civic authorities said that these tanks were cleaned by noon.
Earlier in the day, guardians met school authorities and inspected the campus. "The school has done its bit. We'd say 95% of the clean-up has been done. But we are concerned about the area around the school where the civic body isn't doing enough to clear stagnant water," a parent said.A section of guardians will meet mayor Sabyasachi Dutta to demand a clean-up.