Hospitals in the city are flooded with patients complaining of viral fever with dengue-like symptoms. Doctors from various hospitals said that they are running short of rooms and beds as they are filled with patients who have been admitted due to new cases of viral fever. File photo
Hospitals in the city are flooded with patients complaining of viral fever with dengue-like symptoms. Doctors from various hospitals said that they are running short of rooms and beds as they are filled with patients who have been admitted due to new cases of viral fever.
“We are seeing new viral fever cases every day. All our hospitals are filled with patients, some of them have even been admitted to the ICU,” said Dr Sudarshan Ballal, chairman, Manipal Hospitals.
Dr Ravi Kiran of Sakra World Hospital said there are many unnamed viruses which behave the same way as dengue, thus no symptoms should be ignored. “We have about 8-10 adult patients admitted for dengue on any given day and the trend has significantly increased in the last six weeks,” he said.
Dr Sudha Menon, Internal Medicine, Fortis Hospital, said, “There are at least 10 patients that we see each day with viral fever. They even have symptoms of dengue.”
“We have been getting at least three to four cases of dengue and some chikungunya cases every day. There are a lot of such cases especially due to the season,” said Dr M Ravikeerth, consultant, Internal Medicine, BGS Gleneagles Global Hospital.
Doctors said the number of dengue cases are much higher than the official figures given by the government. “We cannot register the fever as dengue unless the government confirms it,’’ a doctor said.
While commenting on the precautionary measures taken by the BBMP, Dr Naveen Kumar, nodal officer National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme (NVBDCP), said chemicals like Penephom and Pyrethrum are being sprayed around households as well as school premises in the morning to prevent mosquito breeding. He said fogging is also done regularly to control mosquito breeding.
Dr Prakash Kumar, deputy director of NVBDCP and state programme manager of the National Health Mission (NHM), said that urban health centres and public health centres have been set up in the city in addition to the existing health centres. He added that urban ASHA workers are also deployed in BBMP areas to educate people on dengue.