Acknowledging that Government Medical College Hospitals in Tamil Nadu had been receiving an abnormally high number of dengue and other fever cases in the last couple of months, A. Edwin Joe, Director of Medical Education, said the hospitals, however, were fully equipped to tackle the situation even if the trend continued till the end of monsoon.
With preventive measures being taken by various departments, we expect the number of cases should come down, he told media persons after an inspection at Government Rajaji Hospital here on Thursday. Elective surgeries and other less priority activities had taken a back seat owing to the deluge of fever patients, he said.
On referring dengue cases to medical college hospitals instead of handling at district-level hospitals, he said, “Since we are the tertiary care centres, we are in a better position to tackle the situation.”
“Moreover, this year’s dengue and fever outbreak is a learning process for us. For instance, the 24-hour fever clinic concept is a success. In future, such best practices can be replicated at district-level hospitals and even Primary Health Centres to reduce our burden,” he said.
Acknowledging that patients were showing a variety of symptoms, making the diagnosis of the exact type of fever difficult, he said dengue fever at times coupled with typhoid or scrub typhus. But dengue was not life-threatening if medical attention was provided on time, and fluid management was properly maintained. “Many patients think that platelets infusion or intravenous fluids administration should be immediately done. But it should be done only when absolutely necessary. Otherwise, it could lead to other complications. The best medicine is rice porridge,” he said.
Stating that there were 602 persons getting treated as inpatients in GRH as on Thursday morning, of which 95 tested positive for dengue, Dean D. Maruthupandian, however, said there was a slight decline in the number of cases, adding there were even more than 700 in the past weeks.
Dr. Joe said medical college hospitals in Chennai, Salem and Tiruchi were also handling a high number of fever cases.
