Observing that the spurt in dengue cases in Hyderabad and other parts of the State was alarming and shocking, the Telangana High Court on Wednesday directed the government to ensure dengue was checked within a month.
If the officials fail to bring the situation under control, the HC would be compelled to summon the Medical and Health Principal Secretary for explanation, the HC said. A division bench comprising Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice A. Abhishek Reddy, hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) plea on viral fevers gripping the State, said the incidence of 5,914 dengue cases within 22 days spoke volumes for the precarious situation.
On being told by Advocate-General B.S. Prasad that ELISA test conducted for diagnosis of dengue cost ₹3,500, the CJ asked why the government could not subsidise the test so that the poor got some relief.
“Perhaps the State should seriously think of either increasing laboratories conducting ELISA tests or subside the test so that poor can use private hospitals,” the CJ
Blook banks
The bench expressed concern on learning that there were only 22 government-run blood banks in the State. With dengue cases shooting up fast, how could this meagre number of blood banks be sufficient to handle the crisis, the bench wondered, noting that doctors would prefer blood transfusion when the patient condition deteriorated.
The bench sought to know why the official machinery was not using drones to identify hot spots of mosquito breeding in different localities, especially in the slums, where the incidence of dengue was high. Creating a wider and structural awareness among the people on how various fevers, including dengue, spread was the need of the hour, the CJ said. Referring to newspaper reports that poor patients affected by dengue were being driven away by private hospitals, the bench said such response was not fair.
Taking a serious note of such reaction from private hospitals, the bench directed the officials “to identify hospitals denying treatment to the poor and take action against them”.
