VIJAYAWADA: Death of an 11-year-old of suspected dengue at a private hospital in the city on Saturday has raised some important questions over the functioning of private medical institutions.
The boy was reportedly offered treatment for dengue even though the preliminary tests turned out to be negative. The hospital management claims that the boy showed symptoms of dengue-like fever and was thus prescribed the treatment.
Also, they claimed that his samples were sent to the Government General Hospital (GGH) for conducting Elisa test, the only legitimate test for confirming dengue. But the district health department officials state that no such samples were sent.
This case hints toward the disturbing pattern of private hospitals in the city looting patients in the name of dengue. When a patient comes in with a fever, the doctors have been conducting NS1 test to check the presence of antigens and confirming it to be dengue. But the NS1 turns out to be positive for common viral fever and malaria as well.
According to the health officials, the hospitals should not confirm dengue until and unless they get the samples tested positive after Elisa test. The private hospitals should send the samples to GGH for the same. But in many cases, this step is skipped and fevers labelled as dengue.
Krishna District Medical and Health Officer (DMHO) T Murthy, said that they have been receiving multiple complaints against private hospitals for treating common viral fever as dengue and charging huge amount of money from the public.
“We have already issued orders to all the private hospitals to notify about the cases they have treated so far and the number of dengue, malaria and typhoid cases they have encountered. All the hospitals should follow the rules and we would take action against those which don’t,” he added.
Recently, a private hospital had charged over Rs 2.5 lakh in the name of dengue for three days. For the transfusion of platelets alone, the hospital charged over Rs 1.1 lakh.
When TNIE contacted the hospital authorities, they said, “We tested for the presence of dengue and it was positive in the preliminary tests, hence we sent the samples to the GGH for Elisa test. While waiting for the report, in order to rescue the patient, we started the treatment for dengue. Due to multiple organ failure, the patient died and we couldn’t confirm it as dengue as the report hadn’t come back.”
However, the DMHO denied that any samples were sent to the GGH and he further claimed that the preliminary reports had also showed no sign of dengue.
Meanwhile, on Saturday, Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) chief V Prasanna Venkatesh held a meeting with doctors’ association and instructed them to follow the stipulated guidelines. He directed them to go for Elisa test for every viral fever patient. He further instructed the officials of the VMC health wing to create awareness among the public on viral fevers.
Don’t panic, says VMC chief
VMC chief V Prasanna Venkatesh held a meeting with doctors’ association on Saturday and instructed them to follow the guidelines and go for Elisa test for every viral fever patient. He urged the public to not panic if the doctors confirm fever as dengue