Chennai: Dengue and viral fever death cases continue to take a toll in spite of intensified preventive measures by the state health department and government hospitals. The city has seen around 131 cases of dengue this year, with total cases more than 7,000 as per the records.
Six-year-old Sanjana from Nellore district died at the Institute of Child Health (ICH), Egmore, while a 3-year-old Joy Benita from Ambattur died at Kilpauk Medical College (KMC) Hospital on Saturday, bringing the number of deaths to 11 after testing positive for dengue in the last two weeks in the city. Both girls were treated at private hospitals before being referred to the government hospital.
Stating late referrals as the major cause of dengue deaths at ICH, dean Dr Ravi Chandran said, “The girl was referred from a private hospital in Chennai in a state of shock and was admitted to the hospital and survived for 12 hours.”
KMC dean Dr P. Vasanthamani said that girl was treated at a private hospital and was brought in at KMC on 28 September at 8:45 pm. “The girl had a fever for last five days and had a platelet count of more than 60,000. However, she slipped into a state of shock and died on Saturday.”
When contacted, state health department officials said that overall 35,000 workers have been engaged in a door to door awareness campaign and 24/7 fever clinics have also been set up to combat rising cases of dengue.
Inadequate staff, facilities pose challenge to PHCs
Though state health department claims to take numerous measures for dengue prevention and has made an allocation of 13.95 crore for control measures, lack of staff and facilities at Primary Health Centers (PHCs) in the city emerge as a challenge for doctors in the treatment of the fever and dengue patients.
“While the pediatric ward needs at least 6 doctors, there are only 3, making it difficult to render services round the clock. Our first concern is lack of staff and then machinery, as enough staff is needed to use them,” said a staff at Pediatric ward at PHC in West Mambalam. The paediatric ward at PHC receives at least 40-50 patients every day, but mostly treats them as outpatients or refers them to Institute of Child Health (ICH), Egmore.
Patients visiting the Pazavanthangal PHC rued of lack of facilities at the centre saying it lacked the facilities to carry out appropriate treatment. “We were referred to the upgraded Alandur PHC from Pazavanthangal for primary treatment and later referred to the Government Children Hospital in Egmore due to unavailability of doctors for in-patient treatment,” said Vanitha, mother of a young patient.
The PHC in Tambaram that was remodelled recently suffers from lack of a full-time physician and other facilities challenging para-medical employees to deal with crucial situations.
Dengue cases have been treated successfully at the centres in the previous years, said the authorities. But this year a circular has been issued by the government not to admit patients with platelet counts less than 50,000. So, most cases are referred to ICH, said the zonal medical officer.
