MADURAI: Health Minister C Vijaya Basker on Sunday claimed there were no dengue deaths in the State. In response to a Public Interest Litigation (PIL), health secretary J Radhakrishnan had submitted a report to the Madurai Bench of the High Court on August 16 stating that 15 people had died of dengue between January and August in eight districts with Tiruppur recording the highest number (four), as on August 16. That was before the recent spurt in dengue deaths.
On Sunday alone, Madurai GRH recorded 414 fever case admissions. The hospital houses about 400 doctors, and has 2,600 beds, with about 64,000 major and minor surgeries being performed. The hospital witnesses a footfall of about 6,800 inpatients and outpatients in a day.
In Madurai, the number of dengue cases reported for 2017 (till September) is 1046. In July, there were 367 dengue cases reported while it was 245 in August and 193 in September. There are 58 Primary Health Centres (PHC) in the district, besides 28 Corporation PHCs in the city, within the corporation limits. Every PHC has an inflow of 194 outpatients per day and 96 inpatients per month while there are 178 medical officers (doctors) working in the PHCs across the district.
On the other hand, Theni district has six government hospitals, with 101 doctors enrolled in the hospitals.
There are 39 vacancies for the post of doctors, besides 330 paramedical staffs. The government hospitals in the district witness an inflow of 565 inpatients and 6,257 patients a day. The district records 356 fever inpatients in all the hospitals including the 50 major hospitals in the district.