Government believes only Institute of Preventive Medicine, Fever Hospital, allege doctors

Hyderabad: A few doctors, whose private laboratory reports were contradicted and rejected, have asked if the Fever Hospital and Institute of Preventive Medicine are the only diagnostic centres to accept confirmation of dengue, malaria or chikungunya.

Senior paediatrician Dr S. Krishna Murthy, said, “I have got 10 severe cases of children below 10 years in August from Mehdipatnam, Banjara Hills and Lakdikapul. Instead of acting on them, health officers are questioning me. How can they claim that only their laboratories give the right report?”

In a recent meeting, TS health minister Dr C. Laxma Reddy had asked director of health and medical services Dr M. Ramani, to ensure that the health officers went around, checked and reported the cases. But that is not happening.

Dr Ramani, however, said, “Our officers are going to homes, checking and counseling people in areas where dengue cases have been reported. But in some cases we have found that viral fevers are being misdiagnosed as dengue and the patient is paying a lot. Due to these experiences we collect blood samples and verify the disease and only then record it.”

But this has become a method for health officers to avoid notifying authentic cases. A senior doctor said, “By the time the public health official arrives at the hospital two days of treatment have already passed. This brings down the viral load and the blood sample taken after that will show negative results.”

While these diseases are being undermined, officials have been zealously reporting “fevers from unknown origin” in both states. The fevers have been recorded as 4 lakh in AP and 3 lakh in TS.