Kolkata: A day after the West Bengal Health department said that there is nothing to panic about the Guillain Barre Syndrome in the state since neither this is a new disease nor there had been fresh reports of new individuals getting affected by it since December last year, confusion has started glaring over the death of a minor student having died on Wednesday reportedly after being affected by the same disease.
Although there had been claims about the death being due to Guillain Barre Syndrome, there had been no official confirmation in the matter from either the state Health Department or from the authorities of the hospital where the minor was admitted at the time the report was filed.
The deceased minor is reportedly a resident of Jagatdal in North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal and his age was 10 years.
Information of a similar death of another 17-year-old minor, a resident of Amdanga in North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal, reportedly after being affected by Guillain Barre Syndrome, surfaced on Tuesday as well.
However, the authorities of the hospital, instead of directly stating that Guillain Barre Syndrome was the reason for the death claimed that the death was due to septic shock and myocarditis, with possibilities of Guillain Barre Syndrome being the underlying condition.
In the statement issued by the state Health Secretary Narayan Swarup Nigam on Tuesday, he claimed that Guillain Barre Syndrome is nothing new in the state or the country and there had been sporadic reports of people getting affected by it from time to time in the past.
However, he added, that in West Bengal there is nothing to panic about since neither this is a new disease nor there had been fresh reports of new individuals getting affected by it in the state since December last year.
He also said that his claims on this count have also been confirmed by the World Health Organisation.
At the same time, he added that the concerned medical teams of the state Health department are keeping a constant vigil on the situation.
(IANS)
