This bout of dengue in the city could be the worst in the history of the city, as two of the children at the BC Roy Children's hospital have already succumbed to the disease since Sunday night and at least 20 kids who were admitted to the hospital were declared to be in critical condition.

The health department quoted the number of victims in the state to be at 542 in Kolkata, but the civic officials say that the number is an understatement. There are more that 200 cases recorded in Kasba, garfa, Haltu and EM Bypass in just the last 4 days. The last severe bout was not as deadly with 300-400 victims killing 12 people in the dengue outbreak in 2005.

At BC Roy hospital, the cause of the two deaths is not confirmed to be dengue yet but doctors were certain that the symptoms resembled the dengue shock syndrome. Though this is the only referral hospital in the state for children there is no infrastructure for the testing of the Dengue fever. Samples have to be sent to NICED and the reports take up to a week to arrive.

On Sunday evening a child who was jut two years old had breathed his last after less than a couple of hours after being admitted in the hospital. The cause of the death has not been confirmed as no test was performed. Another child on the next morning, on Monday, had also died of high fever.

The officials at the hospital say that the cases cannot be confirmed as dengue until the reports arrive. The situation clearly is not a bright picture though as many kids are being admitted into the hospitals with a high fever after being tested positive for dengue the medical superintendent of the hospital, Dilip Pal said.

On Saturday, Rahul Das, 5, died with an attack of Dengue at the hospital.

(AW- Anil)