Panic has been driving people to seek admission to hospitals, but there are many people with dengue who do not require hospitalization. This is happening because many people do not want to take any chances and are driven by panic; the same goes for the doctors as well.
On Monday, many officials of several hospitals in Kolkata said that the reason for so many admissions of dengue cases was panic; even doctors don’t want to leave anything to chance. According to public health professionals, one of the main causes of this worry is a lack of comprehensive, reliable information regarding the overall number of dengue cases, the number of recoveries, and the number of fatalities brought on by the disease.
The exact number of cases of dengue fever this year and the number of fatalities to date have not yet been officially released by the state administration. Dengue patients who are running a fever but have no other issues are requesting admission, according to doctors and managers of multiple institutions. Seven dengue patients were hospitalised at the RN Tagore International Institute of Cardiac Sciences last week. The number has increased to 19 as of Monday.
According to R. Venkatesh, COO for East and South at Narayana Health, which operates the RN Tagore hospital, “the number of dengue patients being admitted has suddenly increased.” Only one of the 19 is in the intensive care unit. The general ward is where the others are. The majority of them have been admitted as a preventative step. Some of these patients, according to the doctors, can be cared for at home, but because they have asked to be in, the patients are being watched, added Venkatesh. On Monday, 32 dengue patients were admitted to Peerless Hospital, although just one was in the intensive care unit.
“The number of patients admitted to the hospital had dropped to around 25 last week, but there has been an increase in admissions once more in the last few days,” Sudipta Mitra, CEO of Peerless Hospital, claims that the majority of them have platelet counts that are significantly higher than 50,000 per cubic millimetre of blood and do not display any clinical signs of criticality. “The majority of them asked to be admitted for better and more frequent monitoring.” According to Mitra, the patients’ families do not wish to take any chances.
In the event that the platelet count unexpectedly drops below the essential threshold, doctors do not wish to take any chances, he added. On Monday, Belle Vue Clinic saw 22 patients. Three of them were hospitalised on Monday, although none of them is currently in the critical-care unit. Many sufferers don’t feel secure living at home because of this.
According to Belle Vue CEO Pradip Tondon, there are other elderly people whose families want them in. He also said that if a patient’s platelet count is less than 70,000 per cubic millilitre of blood, hospital physicians will not take any chances and consent to accept them. The national and state governments, according to doctors, have provided precise recommendations on when to be hospitalised for dengue.
“The fever in dengue normally lasts four to seven days.” “If the patient is medically sound and does not exhibit any of the warning signals, he or she can remain at home under the observation of a medical practitioner,” said Chandramouli Bhattacharya, an infectious disease specialist at Peerless Hospital. According to an administrator at the government-run MR Bangur Superspeciality Hospital, the fever clinic had to be reopened due to a large volume of dengue and malaria patients.
A few months ago, the fever clinic was shut down after being established during COVID. The procedure has begun. Dengue fever is becoming more well-known. The officer said that anyone who tests positive for dengue will be admitted to the hospital. ” On Monday, 58 patients at the Tollygunge hospital were infected with dengue. According to a Delhi-based public health specialist, COVID demonstrated how open government communication may ease anxiety.
There were several layers of communication regarding COVID. Both the number of fatalities and the number of recovered patients are reported. People feel secure because of this, the expert added. The state administration of West Bengal has not released any information regarding dengue mortality for a number of months. Until a proper action plan is in place, the panic due to this disease is only going to increase.
Read also: Dengue and its Prevention
