Bengal’s 2nd ‘Nile River Disease’ case flummoxes docs
Times of India | 1 July 2024
Kolkata: An 11-year-old boy whose bladder had been invaded by a rare parasite - endemic in India – has now recovered in Peerless Hospital Kolkata. Known as Schistosoma, the parasite also known as blood fluke can cause urological or intestinal infection and is widely prevalent in tropical areas of Africa, Middle East and South-East Asia. This is the second such case of the infection being reported in West Bengal.Since the parasite is found in the Nile in abundance the infection is also loosely called Nile River Disease.
The first case detected at IPGMER and treated by infectious diseases specialist Yogiraj Ray, is a Kolkata resident with travel history in the middle east where she visited a luxury entertainment water park. In this case the boy is from Tripura with no travel history.
The boy, Suman Biswas, was first admitted to Agartala Medical College with complaints of haematuria - passing of blood in urine. When conservative treatment did not lead to much improvement Agartala doctors referred him to Peerless Hospital where doctors also noted clots in his bladder.
“In addition to blood we also found leakage of protein in the urine due to which we initially thought this could be due to a kidney problem,” said paediatrician Sanjukta De.
The paediatric team took the help of the urology team headed by urology surgeon Rajendar Prasad Roy for the bladder clotting. A worm that came out during a bladder wash cracked the case. The hospital’s microbiologist Partha Guchhait confirmed it as Schistosoma through established tests.
“This parasite is very rare in India and infection among children is even rarer. The child has no travel history but used to swim in a local pond regularly. We suspect he must have got the infection from there,” said paediatrician Soumik Dhar whose team treated the boy.
Since the infection is rare in India, this medication too is rare to find.