Wednesday, October 17, 2018

Season of sickness: Fever cases up in city, suburbs
Eight Tested Positive For Dengue

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai: 17.10.2018

The fever season has begun. Hospitals across the city are getting patients with various viral infections including dengue and respiratory ailments.

The first official announcement about a spike in fever cases came on Tuesday after health minister C Vijaya Baskar visited the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital, where 28 patients have been admitted with fever.

“Eight patients have tested positive for dengue. They came here on time and are being treated for the viral disease,” he said.

At least eight more children who were tested positive for dengue are undergoing treatment at Institute of Child Health in Egmore. ICH director Dr A T Arasar Seeralar said the hospital has 34 children with fever.

The directorate of public health has been recording a spike in fever cases in three districts – Chennai, Tiruvallur and Kancheepuram –in the past three weeks. “We have seen about 100 dengue cases from these districts. Most of the patients are treated as out-patients and some of them required admissions. The disease is not as severe as it was in 2017, but we are beginning to see an increase,” said director of public health Dr K Kolandaisamy.

On Tuesday, officials from the directorate met senior administrators from various departments such as police, transport, education, revenue and finance at the Chennai Collectorate. “We have asked them to clean up their campuses thoroughly, remove plastic cups, coconut shells, and discarded vehicles and scrap, so water does not stagnate and allow breeding of mosquito,” he said.

The directorate has also been sending IEC materials to doctors’ bodies for early diagnosis and management of all fever cases, particularly dengue, malaria, H1N1, typhoid and scrub typhus. “We tell doctors not to ignore any fever and monitor patients till they recover completely. Smaller hospitals and nursing homes have been told to refer patients to tertiary centres if there are chances of complications,” the minister said.

Private hospitals have also reported an increase in fever cases, most of them children. Kanchi Kamakoti Childs Trust hospital has around 10 cases of dengue. In many hospitals, 40% of intensive care units are filled with infants suffering from respiratory diseases. “Most of these are severe viral infections. Some usual virus, known for causing common cold, is making some infants so sick that they are on ventilator,” said intensivist Dr Bala Ramachandan.

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