Painkillers may be the culprit behind organ failure in Chikungunya patients

As Chikungunya continues claiming lives in Delhi, with the death toll climbing to 12, an unsettling revelation has the city's doctors worried.

It has been found that painkillers, or Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, that are often administered to dengue patients to relieve joint pain, speed up internal bleeding. Painkillers seem to have identical effects on patients afflicted with the other mosquito-borne ailment - Chikungunya - and are counterproductive in their dosage.

In several top-notch hospitals in the city it has been found that Chikungunya patients are succumbing to kidney and liver damage to the extent that they need to undergo dialysis, or be rendered into Intensive Care respectively.

What these painkillers are doing is that they block prostaglandins - a gland that regulates blood flow to the kidney - consequently causing considerable damage to the kidney.

The fact that Chikungunya is now being directly associated with renal failure is worrying for doctors in Delhi hospitals. Other than avoiding painkillers, doctors are also of the opinion that patients should watch their urine output. Mutation of the Chikungunya virus is also not being ruled out.

While staying hydrated is of utmost importance, doctors are also pointing out that coconut water should be avoided. Potassium content in coconut water could also be a contributing factor to the cases of organ damage that are being reported in Chigungunya patients in the city.