Pune: Two more people undergoing treatment for Guillain-Barré syndrome died in hospitals on Friday, taking Pune’s GBS toll to four. The number of patients currently under treatment in the city also went up to 140 with the addition of 10 people, according to a report by the state health department. There are 18 people currently on ventilator support.
The deaths reported on Friday were of a 60-year-old Buldhana native who was living in Pune’s Sinhagad Road area and a 36-year-old cab driver who was a resident of Pimple Gurav in PCMC limits. He passed away at Pimpri’s YCM hospital where doctors said it’s unclear if he had travelled to Pune city recently.
Both patients experienced rapid deterioration of symptoms, their treating doctors said.
Despite the two deaths and the addition of 10 cases, officials said on Friday they now believe the Pune GBS surge may be showing early signs of slowing down. The 10 cases, they reasoned, were previously unreported hospital admissions and there have been no fresh admissions in the last couple of days, an official said.
In Pimpri Chinchwad, civic officials said they’re still not seeing a Pune-like surge. So far, more than 100 GBS cases have come from Pune municipal limits. Fifteen have been reported in PCMC areas and the rest of the patients – many who are admitted in Pune’s hospitals – are residents of Pune rural and a few neighbouring districts.
“There are 11 patients from other districts who travelled to Pune for GBS treatment. So far, we haven’t found an epidemiological link to connect them to the Pune cluster,” a state health department official said.
As for discharges, hospitals have released 25 patients so far. But on ventilator support are 18 patients while 45 others are in ICUs.
An official from the state’s Rapid Response Team, which has been conducting surveys to determine what caused GBS cases to spike in the city, said an interim report on the outbreak is being prepared in which the definition of a GBS case will be “refined”.
“Additionally, for discharged patients, we are assessing their need for physiotherapy and psychosocial support. Sudden paralysis can lead to severe physical and emotional distress, including depression,” the RRT official said.
