BENGALURU: Arpita two-year-old boy out of Nelamangala, had constant seizures along with a bloated body if he was introduced to the emergency ward of a private hospital at Bengaluru recently.
His platelet count had dropped 20,000, however, the struggle was to control the seizures.
Initially he did not respond to medications on May 12, after he had been attracted to Columbia Asia referral clinic, Yeshwantpur, an component of Manipal Hospitals and that he was placed on ventilator support.
Doctors realised along with Covid, the kid had developed meningitis in the rickettsial disease.
An uncommon tick-borne disease, rickettsial is a tropical disease and also mostly limited to Malnad locations.
But doctors say that there have been instances in Bengaluru too.
Arpit lived and was discharged May 26, following prolonged therapy.
Though he made high fever and rashes all over his entire body, his family did not require him to hospital for 5 days because of anxiety about Covid.
They believed it was a situation of’amma’, a colloquial expression for chicken pox.
“Rickettsial fever is due to tick bites and can be particularly seen in tropical areas like ours at the monsoon season,” explained Dr Supraja Chandrashekar, paediatric intensivist, that handled the boy.
“The illness can be very fulminant if not treated and can lead to complications such as mind strain, low blood platelets, very low blood pressure and sometimes even death.” She explained both Covid-19 and rickettsial disease together is very uncommon and not found from the west.
“Complications originating from disease needed to be considered alongside article Covid multi-organ inflammatory syndrome (MIS) while handling the kid,” she explained.
Dr Gurudutt AV, paediatric intensivist in the clinic, who treated the boy stated that the critical determining factor of a great result would be to track whether the kid’s brain recovers with no long-term consequences even after two hours of constant matches, brain strain that has been unrecognised plus a double infection.
“It was hard pressed to observe the kid tide bye and grin when visiting home after fourteen days of stay.
Every effort was worthwhile,” he explained.
The boy’s instance of double infection has been a case study recently introduced at an interview of the Indian Academy of Paediatrics, Bengaluru chapter.
Throughout the Covid summit in early May, Arpit’s parents needed to run from pillar to post to discover a mattress for the boy, but they finally did.
“Doctors started treatment immediately along with the whole staff had been at his bedside for hours together until the kid’s condition stabilised,” the boy’s mother explained.