Punjab is in the grip of a dengue epidemic, with hundreds of cases being reported daily at various hospitals across the state.
CHANDIGARH: Punjab is in the grip of a dengue epidemic, with hundreds of cases being reported daily at various hospitals across the state.
The state health authorities are finding it difficult to cope with the rush of patients who include children and women. The problem has been compounded by the fact that the government hospitals are not equipped at all for the cure, which involves transfusion of blood platelets.
As a result, many patients are being referred to the PGI in Chandigarh or private medical college hospitals in Ludhiana. According to an estimate, more than 50,000 cases have so far been reported in the state.
Patients from poor families have been spending Rs500 to Rs1,000 daily on medicines while government hospitals are short of beds. At certain places, teams of additional doctors and other paramedical staff have been sent to deal with the situation.
Sources in the health department said the department was ill-equipped for conducting confirmatory tests for dengue. At times, the department had to send blood samples to Delhi.
In spite of chief minister Parkash Singh Badal’s announcement that dengue patients would be treated free of cost in the civil hospitals, patients have been shelling out heavy sums for treatment.
Authorities of the various civil hospitals claimed that they had not received any official circular or communication in this regard. TP Singh, district epidemiologist, said that the department had been refunding the money, charged for tests, after a patient was detected positive for dengue in serology tests. “We in Jalandhar are charging only Rs400 for a serology test against Rs1,000 being charged by the private hospitals,” he added.
Punjab health minister Luxmi Kanta Chawla, however, claimed the chief minister had said that the health department may use money from the Natural Calamity Fund to tackle the dengue crisis in the state. But the state government is yet to declare the dengue wave as an epidemic.
In view of the grim situation, the chief minister has asked chief secretary RI Singh to instruct the departments of medical education and research as well as health and family welfare to constitute special teams in the medical colleges and hospitals to effectively treat the dengue cases.
The chief minister also asked the health and family welfare department to create awareness among people about the causes, symptoms and treatment of the disease through advertisements in the print as well as electronic media.
b_ajay@dnaindia.net
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