NEW DELHI: After another death in a municipal hospital took the diphtheria toll in the city to 19, north corporation mayor Aadesh Gupta formed a committee to look into the mater and vowed strict action.The panel will submit its report in three days. The Maharishi Valmiki Infectious Diseases Hospital has seen a spike in cases this year: 147 patients were admitted between September 6 and 23. Of these, 122 were from UP, 14 from Delhi and 11 from Haryana. Last year, 550 children were admitted and about 100 deaths were reported.Gupta said: “We have formed a committee comprising administrative and health officials, who will probe the matter and find out why the hospital lacked in providing the medicines.”A senior health official in north corporation said the number of children admitted with diphtheria at MVID Hospital had gone up to 155. “All the admitted children are stable. We are striving to prevent further mortality,” the official said. He added more than 200 vials of anti-toxins had arrived. Diphtheria is an acute infectious disease for which preventive vaccination is available for free under the universal immunisation programme.But experts say certain communities don’t get their children vaccinated due to traditional beliefs. “Preventive vaccination is the only effective way to reduce diphtheria burden. It affects the poor and they often delay approaching a qualified medical practitioner once the disease sets in,” a doctor said.Delhi Commission for Women chief Swati Maliwal, meanwhile, issued a notice to the medical superintendent of the hospital. She asked the hospital to provide details of the steps taken to ensure no more deaths happened apart besides demanding an increase in the number of staff and beds allotted for treating the patients.The notice stated that it had been reported that the children died because of unavailability of anti-diphtheria vaccine despite the hospital being a specialist centre for the disease.Diphtheria is caused by the bacterium Corynebacterium diphtheria. It affects the throat and upper airways, which causes sore throat like symptoms and difficulty in breathing initially. If left untreated, the infection causes production of a toxin that can damage the body’s peripheral nerves and other important organs.The primary treatment of diphtheria involves administering an anti-toxin to reduce the damage being caused by toxins released due to the infection.

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