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ShareMumbai: Dr SN Acharya, a general practitioner from Kurla, has had little rest since the country's first swine flu death on August 3. And now with a swine flu death in the city, his clinic has been flooded with patients, not necessarily suffering from swine flu or even just flu.
"I received so many calls that I decided to keep my clinic open over the weekend. I have extended my visiting hours at the clinic for the the past few days," Acharya said.
"Every sneeze, cough, cold, or fever does not mean that you have swine flu. But telling this to a country obsessed with self-diagnosis and self medication, is like talking to a wall," the doctor said.
Dr Anil Pachnekar, the president of Indian Medical Association (IMA), has spent the past few days fielding questions from not just patients but from other doctors as well. "Having worked for more than 25 years, we have several regular patients who call up to enquire. Several doctors too have called up asking if they should have a precautionary dose of Tamiflu," he said.
Several doctors, who are a part of IMA, chose to work over the weekend to dispel myths and fears among patients. "I have counselled hundreds of patients so far. But I am still to see a positive patient," Dr Ajay Thakkar, a general physician, said. "While earlier, patients with fever preferred to wait for a day or two before consulting their doctors, now they are rushing to the doctor on the first day. In a way this is a good thing, because a doctor is the best person to judge the illness."
Travel history has been was an important indicator to find out if a person with symptoms actually has swine flu. Recently, patients with no travel history have tested positive for swine flu.
Since symptoms of swine flu such as cold, fever, headache, and body ache are not different from seasonal flu, diagnosis is difficult. But in swine flu, patients will have extremely runny nose, redness in the eyes, severe myalgia (body ache) and throat pain.
Over and above this, the fever and symptoms do not subside even after taking antibiotics for a day or two. This is when precautionary measures should be started, tests done to confirm swine flu, said physicians.
