Times of India
07 October 2010
Lucknow, India

Hospitals Flooded With Suspected Cases; Health Officials Pray For Early Onset Of Winters
Even as the suspected dengue patients continued to pour in in city hospitals on Wednesday, the health officials prayed for the early onset of the winters to save them from the disgrace of not being able to tackle the huge pressure. Many virus, including that of dengue, which are hyperactive during rainy season subdue as the temperature falls and atmosphere becomes dry.

The main reason for the sudden rise in dengue and other mosquito induced viraldiseases in city are water-filled pot holes on roads due to laying the sewer lines.

The pools are breeding ground of mosquitoes. I lodged a complaint with all authorities concerned regarding the water pool in front of my house but no action has been taken. As a result my two sons are suffering from dengue," said Dr Sharad Sharma, a CDRI scientist who lives in Sector-B, Mahanagar. Similar complaints were also received from Indiranagar, Aliganj, Nishatganj and other parts of the city.

Due to a rise in mosquito population, out-patient-door (OPD) facilities are flooded with patients of viral fever, malaria, dengue and other diseases," said a doctor at Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Hospital, narrating that over 200 viral cases were coming to the OPD every day. While majority cases are of viral fever, nearly 30% are of dengue. The situation was no different at Balrampur Hospital and Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital.

There is only one centre at health directorate for dengue testing of patients coming to government hospitals.

The situation at the CSM Medical University (CSMMU) is more critical. The trauma centre is overloaded with suspected dengue patients. We are getting critical patients from all over UP," said Prof AA Sonkar, in-charge trauma centre. Chief medical superintendent Prof SN Sankhawar said: We are not denying admission to patients and trying to accommodate as far as possible." However, the heavy load is taking toll of the resident doctors. The problem, said a resident, is that government hospitals refer all critical cases to CSMMU.

Dr AK Shukla, chief medical officer, Lucknow, also admitted that all the hospitals are witnessing a heavy rush. But, he said, majority cases are of viral fever.

Claiming that all government hospitals are equipped with facilities to treat dengue patient, he said that the dengue is self limiting virus which will subdue with in a week or ten days with the drop in the day temperature. Officials at the health directorate said that around 200 dengue patients have been reported in the state and there have been no dengue deaths so far.

However, huge rush to buy platelets at CSMMU blood bank narrated a different story. The bank is making around 200 units of platelets every day through component separator and all is sold out by the evening.

It’s true that there is panic buying but the turnout showed that dengue cases are rising in the city, said a blood bank official. Number of patients under treatment in CSMMU, SGPGI and three main government hospitals is over 100 at present with around 50 admitted to CSMMU alone.

An equal number of dengue patients are reportedly undergoing treatment in various private hospitals and nursing homes of the city.

Rapid/Quick Diagnosis

1. First 4 or 5 days of illness: NS1-ELISA test and PCR (Polymerase chain raction) test
2. Between 5 to 15 days after onset of illness: IgM-ELISA (Enzyme linked immunosorbent assay)
3. Dengue virus isolation can be attempted during first four days if illness but needs lots of facilities
4. About 3 to 6 days after the mosquito bite dengue virus enter blood stream.
5. Sickness (fever, head ache) appears after the virus circulates in blood * During first 4 or 5 days the virus remains in blood, therefore it can be detected in blood by PCR test (which looks for viral nucleus: RNA) or by NS1-ELISA (NS1 is a protein present on the surface of the virus).
6. After 5 days of illness IgM antibodies start appearing in the blood of the patient, reach peak in about 2 weeks time and usually disappear after 4-6 week. Therefore their detection helps in diagnosis at later period.