Health Minister Eatala Rajender admitted that seasonal fevers were rampant in the State and they were likely to continue for another month due to the present wet weather conditions. Replying to a question in the Assembly, Mr. Rajender, however, denied that dengue was prevalent.

He said 99% of the fevers were viral ones, while less than one per cent were dengue cases and its related fevers. In fact, the intensity of dengue was much lesser this year than 2017, he claimed.

He asked the Opposition parties not to scare people, but cooperate with the government in sensitising them on the causes of fevers and their prevention.

He said there was a staff crunch at hospitals, but the existing staff were working overtime to deal with the patients.

Responding to Anasuya (Seethakka) and Bhatti Vikramarka of the Congress party, the Minister agreed that only in two district hospitals, patients were forced to share beds, but at other places, there was no shortage of beds as claimed by the Congress leaders.

He said Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has sanctioned 12,289 posts and the recruitment board has made arrangements to fill up 2,272 posts.

ICU in district hospitals

Unlike in the past, the Telangana government has created ICUs in the district hospitals apart from dialysis centres for kidney patients.

Even as the Minister was answering, Congress MLAs Bhatti Vikramarka, D. Sreedhar Babu, Seethakka, Jayaprakash Reddy and Podem Veeraiah continued to raise their voice demanding mike for the members.

They wanted the Chief Minister to visit the district hospitals to analyse the situation himself.