The State capital is under the grip of viral fevers. Seasonal showers, dipping temperatures, mosquito breeding in stagnant water and exposure to contaminated water has triggered a spate in cases of viral fevers, physicians point out.
Private hospitals, nursing homes and clinics are also reporting an increase in malaria cases. Average daily outpatient inflow at Sir Ronald Ross Institute of Tropical and Communicable Diseases (Fever Hospital), Nallakunta, which usually hovers between 600 and 800, has reached 1,200.
At Gandhi and Osmania General Hospitals, viral fever cases in the outpatient department are consistently crossing the 1,000 mark. Small clinics and nursing homes with less than 10 beds are also receiving large number of patients. Besides the cases of common cold, influenza and pneumonia, physicians said that a large number of patients with viral gastroenteritis are also getting admitted to hospitals.
“A large number of patients with symptoms of malaria and dengue are also coming to us. Organising awareness drives and medical camps is the need of the hour,” says former Superintendant of Gandhi Hospital B. Balraju.