PUNE: A 37-year-old man from Sangli referred to a Pune hospital died late Sunday of Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS), becoming Maharashtra’s seventh victim from the rare but treatable infection since Pune reported an outbreak just over a month ago. The latest casualty coincided with the city’s caseload going up by eight overnight to touch 192 on Monday.
The health department, which has confirmed water contamination as the primary cause of the GBS outbreak based on multiple lab tests, said the seventh victim was a driver undergoing treatment at Kamala Nehru Hospital.
The cause of death was GBS-induced septic shock and acute coronary syndrome, a preliminary report said. He had been first taken to another hospital in Pune and then to a facility in Nippani town of Karnataka’s Belagavi district before being finally admitted to Kamala Nehru Hospital.
Across hospitals in Pune, 48 GBS patients remain in intensive care and 21 on ventilator support. A total of 91 people with the condition have been discharged.
Over 4,700 water samples from different areas of Pune were sent for various analyses. Sixty-five of them were found to be contaminated.
