New Delhi: To control the rising dengue cases in India, the Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Monday chaired a high-level meeting in Delhi with the officials and stressed the need for effective coordination between the Centre and states.
“Some hospitals are overburdened with dengue cases while beds continue to be empty in other hospitals. Effective communication between all stakeholders was thus suggested as the way forward,” Mandaviya said. Highlighting the situation, Mandaviya pointed out that many poor people were affected by dengue and are weakened due to low platelet count.
“Primary health care centres may prescribe antipyretic drugs to suppress the symptoms without addressing the root cause which may lead to the eventual demise of the patient,” he said.
He further said that testing is the most important step for identifying dengue. He also directed officials to ramp up testing so that all cases are reported and treated properly.
As far as the situation in Delhi is concerned, South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) said that with the rising cases of dengue, Delhi had reported six dengue-related deaths this year.
The civic body further said that a total of 531 new dengue cases were reported in the last week in the national capital territory.
In Delhi, private hospitals are either increasing the number of beds or cancelling the planned surgeries in order to accommodate dengue patients, in view of the rising dengue cases.
The dengue cases, breaching the 1,000-mark in recent days, the government and the private hospitals across Delhi have ramped up the beds and other medical facilities. As the COVID-19 cases subsided in Delhi, the rising of cases of Dengue has been a headache for the healthcare workers.
On October 30, the Delhi government allowed the hospitals in the national capital to divert one-third of beds reserved only for COVID-19 patients to the patients of Dengue, Malaria and Chikungunya, as per the official order.
The Delhi Health and Welfare department passed an order after observing the rise in cases of the above-mentioned vector-borne diseases.
Also read: Mandaviya assures Centre’s full support in dealing with dengue situation in Delhi