VASCO: A five-year-old girl from Headland-Sada on Tuesday died of suspected dengue at the Goa Medical College and Hospital at Bambolim. The girl, identified as Lavanya Gurunath Naik, was a lower KG student of a Chicalim school. Lavanya, her parents and brother had been staying with her uncle at Assoi Dongri in Dabolim.
However, she had been staying at her father’s original house at Headland-Sada during Saptah celebrations when she started getting fever.
The girl had been admitted to a private hospital in Vasco for suspected dengue fever. As Lavanya had not been responding to the treatment she was taken to the Cottage Hospital at Chicalim and thereafter was shifted to the GMC some days back. She, however, breathed her last while undergoing treatment on Tuesday morning.
The girl’s brother had also been suffering from dengue but got over the illness after undergoing treatment.
Family members of the girl said that dengue NS1 antigen was detected when blood samples of the girl were tested at a private laboratory in Vasco.
The cremation was held at Bogda crematorium on Tuesday afternoon.
Last year, some five people, including a five-year-old girl and a woman, had fallen victim to suspected dengue.
Health officer of the Vasco urban health centre Dr Rashmi Khandeparkar said that as of now the health centre has not found any dengue case.
“The girl’s death is an unfortunate incident… The health department has not found any dengue case near the place where the girl had been residing for the last several days,” Dr Khandeparkar said, adding that the GMC has so far not confirmed the death as a dengue case. “But it is a suspected case of dengue,” she stated.
The girl’s death found its echo at a special meeting of the Mormugao municipal council on Tuesday.
Councillors – Krishna Salkar and Lavina D’Souza – alleged that the municipal authorities have failed to take precautionary measures to check dengue and malaria.
The municipality does not have fogging machines, and there has been an acute shortage of medicines and chemicals used for fogging, the councillors said.
However, MMC chairperson Deepak Naik rubbished the accusations claiming that the council has taken all preventive measures to fight off dengue and malaria in all 25 wards.