Doctors attribute this to a mutation in the vivax strain of the virus which leads to a drop in the blood platelet count
Doctors attribute this to a mutation in the vivax strain of the u00a0u00a0virus which leads to a drop in the blood platelet count
In a clear sign of the malaria viruses getting deadlier, doctors are noticing cases in which the patients' neurological system is affected and they slip into a coma. They attribute this to a mutation of the malaria virus leading to a drop in the platelet count of malaria patients.
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| DANGER LURKS: Doctors said that such cases are coming to light due to the higher incidence of malaria this year. REPRESENTATION PIC |
Take the case of 40-year-old Vilas More, who tested positive for vivax plasmodium strain of malaria and slipped into a coma after being admitted to the KEM Hospital. He had a platelet count of 20,000 (as opposed to a count of nearly 1 lakh in a healthy person) and had developed Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS).
"The patient had developed thrombocytopenia (the presence of relatively few platelets in the blood). This was accompanied by low blood pressure, which could have been the cause of the subsequent bleeding in the brain. We could not operate on the patient immediately as stabilising his platelet count took six hours," said a senior neurosurgeon who operated on More.
Dr Atul Goel, who heads the neurosurgery department at KEM Hospital, said, "This is extremely rare and not many such cases are reported."u00a0
Hemotologist (a medical professional who studies diseases and disorders of the blood and blood-forming tissues) Dr Sunil Parekh, said, "In cases of low blood platelet count, the body can't perform the clotting process, leading to excessive bleeding which can occur in any part of the body. Low platelet count is associated with both vivax and falciparum malaria cases but very few people actually die because of it -- secondary medical complications like blood pressure and ARDS are the ones which lead to mortality." He added that such cases are coming to light due to the higher incidence of malaria this year.
Explaining how the mutation in the malaria viruses is making them deadlier, neurosurgeon Dr Nitin Dange, said, "Earlier, the neurological system was affected only in cases of falciparum malaria. But, due to the mutation of the vivax strain, it affects patients on the lines of the falciparum strain, leading to low platelet count.u00a0 There are cases in which patients who have tested positive for vivax suffer bleeding in the brain (a condition known as hematoma), which can be attributed to a low blood platelet count."
He added that this could be described as a secondary effect of the deadly parasite.
In another case, 32-year-old Ramdas Raut was admitted to a private hospital in Byculla with the history of testing positive for vivax plasmodium. Raut was operated for brain haemorrhage on August 3, then slipped into a coma and died on August 7.
