Ronan Kelly
Retired 2020
Doctors diagnose rare disease caused by mites in woman from Katol
Snehlata Shrivastav, TNN | Oct 23, 2012, 01.45AM IST
NAGPUR: Kusum Wankhede, a 45-year-old farm labourer, could have died from the high grade fever she had been suffering for about a week. Luckily, doctors at Indira Gandhi Government Medical College (IGGMC) correctly diagnosed the disease afflicting her as scrub typhus, a very rare disease and extremely uncommon in this part of the country.
The doctors were able to save her life despite Wankhede being unconscious when she was brought in. They would have missed the disease had they not spotted an 'eschar', a cigarette butt like scar on her breast while performing an ECG.
Wankhede would not have survived if the IGGMC doctors had forgotten their text books, or were not vigilant enough, or unaware of the prevalence of this disease in some parts of Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. Now, IGGMC is planning a special camp in her village Kolhu, on the outskirts of a forest area some 20km from Katol in Nagpur district, to check if there are more such patients.
"We had read about this zoonotic disease (transmitted from animals to humans) in our text book, but never seen a patient. Recently, I had read about deaths due to scrub typhus in some parts of the country. When I accidentally noticed the scar on the unconscious patient's breast while conducting her ECG, I decided to check the possibility," said Dr Abhijit Nugurwar, a registrar in the ICU of IGGMC.
...
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...-in-woman-from-Katol/articleshow/16920847.cms
Snehlata Shrivastav, TNN | Oct 23, 2012, 01.45AM IST
NAGPUR: Kusum Wankhede, a 45-year-old farm labourer, could have died from the high grade fever she had been suffering for about a week. Luckily, doctors at Indira Gandhi Government Medical College (IGGMC) correctly diagnosed the disease afflicting her as scrub typhus, a very rare disease and extremely uncommon in this part of the country.
The doctors were able to save her life despite Wankhede being unconscious when she was brought in. They would have missed the disease had they not spotted an 'eschar', a cigarette butt like scar on her breast while performing an ECG.
Wankhede would not have survived if the IGGMC doctors had forgotten their text books, or were not vigilant enough, or unaware of the prevalence of this disease in some parts of Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. Now, IGGMC is planning a special camp in her village Kolhu, on the outskirts of a forest area some 20km from Katol in Nagpur district, to check if there are more such patients.
"We had read about this zoonotic disease (transmitted from animals to humans) in our text book, but never seen a patient. Recently, I had read about deaths due to scrub typhus in some parts of the country. When I accidentally noticed the scar on the unconscious patient's breast while conducting her ECG, I decided to check the possibility," said Dr Abhijit Nugurwar, a registrar in the ICU of IGGMC.
...
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...-in-woman-from-Katol/articleshow/16920847.cms