Delhi Government cancels leaves of doctors due to dengue
With the exponential increase in dengue-cases, the Delhi Government cancelled the leaves of all doctors and paramedical staff including nurses, as hospitals are struggling to deal with the patient-rush. It has commanded all government hospital to open "fever-clinics" at their premises to detect the disease at an early-stage. Directorate of Health-Services has directed all government and private-hospitals not to deny admission of dengue patients.
All about dengue in a nutshell!
Dengue is a mosquito-borne disease caused by the dengue-virus and commonly prevails in the months of August-October during monsoons. The dengue-virus has 5 different types and incubation period for the virus ranges from 3-14 days and symptoms occur between 4th-7th day. Symptoms include fever, headache, joint and muscle pains, breathing-trouble, abdominal-pain, frequent-vomiting, vomiting blood etc. Complications start arising from 3rd- 5th day of illness.
The dengue mosquito
Dengue is transmitted through various species of mosquitoes, specifically belonging to the genus Aedus. They bite during the day, specifically early morning and evening.
Platelet infusion- an expensive affair!
Treatment of mild and moderate cases is provided using either oral or intravenous rehydration while intravenous fluids and platelet-transfusion are required for severe cases. Platelet transfusion is extremely expensive affair with boost-platelets costing around Rs.25000-30000 and single-donor platelets costing even more. Treatment for dengue-fever in a reputed private hospital could cost more than Rs.1.2 lakhs. However, government hospitals cost less but facilities are limited.
Danger of dengue predicted in Delhi
South-Delhi-Municipal-Corporation (SDMC) confessed their failure to conduct enough tests to prevent mosquito-larvae from breeding this year. The corporations were supposed to check all households under their jurisdiction for mosquito-larvae. South-Delhi lagged behind, searching only 17000 households as compared to 22000 and 19000 houses by North-Delhi and East-Delhi respectively. 30,000 larvae was reported to be found in South-Delhi alone providing warning for the upcoming dengue-epidemic.
Dengue strikes Ahmedabad
Almost 134 dengue cases were confirmed from July 1 to August. The Ahmedabad-Municipal-Corporation (AMC) found out that almost 109 out 0f 134 were school and college students aged 8-25. AMC turned stringent towards schools stating that any incidence of fever for two-three days must be immediately reported by the school or college-authorities. Two cases were reported of infants less than 1 year old.
The dengue outbreak in Dehradun
A total of 21 dengue-cases were reported in Dehradun-district in August with more suspected cases ushering. The health-department in Dehradun has formed a 10-member task force to maintain sanitation conditions as well as provide medicines and equipments to all government and private-hospitals. The Dehradun Municipal Corporation has also issued an alert to prevent water-stagnancy at infected areas and sprayed insecticides for prevention of mosquito-breeding.
The tragic death
A seven-year-old kid died on 8 September due to dengue after several hospitals in Delhi refused to admit him due to patient overload. The boy's parents committed suicide due to their child's death. The incident urged Delhi-Government to install a ministerial-probe into the case.
Ministers assess the dengue situation
On 13 September, Delhi Health-Minister issued a show-cause notice to five hospitals for denying admission to the seven-year-old dengue-patient. On September 14, Health-Minister, Satyendra Jain called an emergency meeting to review the situation which was attended by all district-magistrates, divisional-commissioners, heath-secretaries etc. Despite increasing facilities, there still remained a shortage since three corporations have been lacking to curb the spread of the disease.
The current dengue-situation in Delhi
The Delhi Municipal Corporation's fresh data shows that 613 dengue-cases have been reported in the last week and a total of 1872 patients have been tested positive for dengue till September 12 in 2015. Nine dengue-deaths have been reported in Delhi so far.
