As contradictory and inflated figures surfaced about the incidence of dengue cases, the district administration has warned stern action against private hospitals, clinics and laboratories using Rapid Diagnostic Testing (RDT) kits for diagnosing fever cases.
Stating that the district administration has banned the use of RDT, Collector S. Natarajan, after taking stock of the situation in a meeting with medical officers here on Saturday, said that he was forced to issue the warning as there were reports that private hospitals and clinics falsely diagnosed fever cases as positive for dengue, using RTD kits and fleecing hapless patients.
RTD, the ‘cheap kit’ could never be accurate as the device could even be set to show the results either positive or negative, he said.
On the other hand, dengue virus could be accurately predicted only with the help of ELISA (enzyme linked immunosorbent assay) test, he said. Private hospitals and clinics which did not have the required testing and infrastructure should immediately refer the fever cases to government hospitals, he said.
It was unfortunate that some private hospitals, after wrong diagnosis, referred the patients to government hospitals after the final stages, the Collector said. The private hospitals should immediately stop using RDT, failing which, notices would be issued and the extent of action would go up to sealing the premises, he warned.
Meanwhile, the Department of Public Health has proposed to launch block-wise ‘dengue wash-out’ exercise by pooling the manpower in all the other blocks. To begin with, the massive exercise would be launched in Mandapam block when manpower in all the four other blocks would be mobilised to cleanse the block.
Each one of the households would be visited by the health and sanitary workers under the exercise, sources said. The departments of rural development, revenue, police and self-help group members, noon-meal workers and those employed in ICDS would be engaged in the drill, they said.
Similar exercise would be launched in six blocks in Paramakudi division, the sources added.
