Krishnagiri: Low platelet count may not necessarily be dengue. Even other illness like common cold and viral fever can bring the platelet count down.
“People need not panic if the test report shows low platelet count. Other illness not at all dangerous and some drugs will also decline the platelet counts has resulted in unwanted panic among people and unnecessary hospitalization,” Dr P Priya Raj told DC.
Priya Raj, the deputy director for health services (DDHS) asked patients to take more fluids, rest and most importantly to get treatment from government hospitals or professional doctors who will help in speedy recovery of the patients.
The DDHS, elaborating about the ways to confirm Dengue said, “a doctor should not come to a conclusion with the first result. He should advise the patient to go for two or three tests if the platelet count was low in the first evaluation. The tests should be repeated after 48 hours or in the right interval depending on the patient's condition”
“The dengue should also be differentiated as ‘Hemorrhagic’ and mild dengue. Bleeding occurs and the platelet count is the matter of concern, not all time in the Hemorrhagic case” Priya Raj said.
According to Dr Priya Raj, even a patient having blood count around 30,000 platelet counts per micro liter of blood, has chances for recovery without platelet infusion.
“Normal platelet count should be between 1.50 lakh to 4.50 lakh in per micro liter of blood. It goes down below 20,000 in cases of dengue and for other viral fevers it declines to below one lakh. The blood count reaches to normal stage after the dengue or other viral fever was completely cured,” Dr Priya Raj said.
Dr Priya Raj when asked about two deaths reported in Krishnagiri for the fever said that the cases have not been taken to the professional doctors at the beginning stage of the illness. First, they received treatment from quacks and later visit clinics after the condition became worse.
Moral of the story is: Any serious fever, straight go to the Government hospital first.
