“This year, DEN-2 is the most predominant along with DEN-4, which we haven’t seen predominantly in Delhi. We have emptied Eye and Ortho wards to accommodate dengue patients”, said Dr Savita Babbar, Medical Superintendent, Deen Dayal Hospital.
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Recently, parents of the 7-year-old son committed suicide after their only son suffering from dengue was not admitted to a hospital on time. It seems that a large number of hospitals in Delhi were refusing proper treatment to the Dengue patients. Why isn’t the government doing enough to make them fall in line? The Union health ministry also ordered an inquiry into the case.
He said that sanitation, fumigation, and door-to-door checking for mosquitoes breeding has to be done on war-footing to contain the situation.
The serological tests are yet to ascertain the prevelance of dengue strain in the city, according to National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).
“The panic in people about the spread of dengue is leading to a huge burden on hospitals”.
The South Asian nation now spends one percent of its GDP on public health – and Asia’s third-largest economy fares poorly on multiple health indices.
Blood Component Separators have been installed at district level hospitals and six Aphesis machines have been installed at Civil Hospitals at Amritsar, Bathinda, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Hoshiarpur and Mohali for provision of platelets for very severe cases of dengue hemorrhagic fever. While the number of cases detected in Delhi last year was 995, the number detected this year ending second week of September was 1872 and loss of life has been reported to be 5 as compared to 3 last year.
“What’s happened is not surprising”. The child died on Sunday at Holy Family Hospital in Okhla. “There is an urgent need for a law granting the right to health to all”, said Mr. Aggarwal. But such extraordinary measures are also an embarrassing testimony to the government’s failure to bolster hospital capacity. Out of these, about half are in the private sector (including voluntary organizations etc), while the rest are with central and state governments or various municipal bodies. The corporations are supposed to prevent vector-borne diseases, which they have been unable to do.
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“The parents should send their children to schools only in clothes with full sleeves and the government will ensure that the uniform colour does not create any problem for the children”, said the education minister of Delhi.
