As dengue cases cross 900-mark, Gzb pvt hospitals told to defer elective surgeries – ET HealthWorld

On Thursday, the district added 22 more cases which took the number of dengue patients to 905 this season. The first dengue case was reported from the district on September 1. A total of 104 dengue patients–54 in government and 50 others in private — are under treatment in hospitals at present, health officials said.

Chief medical officer (CMO) Dr Bhavtosh Shankhdhar, however, said the situation was under control.

“There is no shortage of beds at present anywhere and the positivity rate is slowly coming down. As a precautionary measure, we have asked private hospitals to defer elective surgeries in case they are running out of beds,” the CMO said. Earlier, Dr Shankhdhar had asked private hospitals with 100 beds’ capacity to keep aside 20 beds for fever and dengue patients.

Meanwhile, health officials said Muradanagar was the worst hit by dengue in the district and has reported nearly 250 cases. It is followed by Vijay Nagar (136 cases), Harsaon (71) and Shastri Nagar (66).

Long queues, high bed occupancy

The District MMG Hospital and District Combined Hospital (DCH) have been witnessing long queues of fever patients in OPDs. At MMG, the out-patient department was reporting over 500 fever patients daily. Between September 15 and October 27, as many as 20,528 fever patients visited the hospital, of whom 5,938 were children and 14,590 adults, according to official data. During the corresponding period, 877 patients were admitted to the hospital.

The situation is no different in DCH. Dr Sanjay Teotia, the chief medical superintendent of the hospital, told TOI, “Viral fever and dengue cases have gone up in the hospital in the past 10 days. About 200 fever patients are coming to OPDs daily. Of the 100 beds of the hospital, 75 are occupied by fever (47) and dengue (28) patients. There are five-six patients, whose platelets are in the range of 15000-20000. However, the good part is that no one is suffering from the dengue haemorrhagic shock syndrome.”

Dr Vinay Bhat, a consultant with Columbia Asia Hospital’s internal medicine department, said the occupancy rate in the hospital was around 70% at present. “Due to the extended monsoon, the number of dengue and viral fever cases has gone up. Last year, there were hardly any cases at this time of the year. One of the reasons was Covid-19, due to which people were maintaining strict hygiene even inside their homes.”

The hospital is seeing 15-20 viral fever and dengue patients every day, Dr Bhat said, adding that there were just three-four severe cases in the past one and half months.

Dr Vandana Garg, a senior consultant at Max Hospital Vaishali, said attributed the spike in cases to the heavy rainfall in late September and the intermittently showers throughout October. “Most patients, however, do not need hospitalization. It is required for patients who are not eating well and have developed complications like vomiting, bleeding from the nose and gums, and whose platelet count has gone down drastically. Patients with comorbidities are also required hospitalization. Being a tertiary care hospital, we have admitted about three-four serious patients in ICU every week over the past fortnight,” she added.

The private labs are also seeing a surge of dengue tests. A lab incharge with a private diagnostic company’s Raj Nagar Extension branch said, “We alone are seeing at least 30 fever patients every day who have been advised to undergo dengue test. Many of them turn out to be positive, but most are viral fever cases.”