SRIKAKULAM: Responding to the report on the 'private diagnostic labs' and 'a few (private) hospitals' making 'fast buck by falsifying dengue test reports', published in TNIE on Monday, officials of the district medical and health office, following the directives of DM&HO S Tirupathi Rao, have issued strict written instructions and circulated those to all private diagnostic laboratories and private hospitals in the district, directing them not to confirm dengue only on the basis of the NS1 screening test.
Speaking to TNIE, Tiruapthi Rao said that they took the report very seriously, after it was brought to his notice. He said that they - the lab technicians and even doctors, who were served the notices - should not confirm the dengue only by conducting NS1 screening test, which otherwise would send wrong message to the society and create panic among fever victims. He also directed them to refer all the NS1 positive cases for ELISA test for confirmation of the dengue.
However, this test is only available at RIMS, Srikakulam. "Every lab report should mention “confirm with ELISA test”, followed by the dengue screening test NS1," he said.
Only 10 dengue cases this year
Speaking on the prevalence of dengue in the district, he said that only 10 cases were reported since January this year in the district and all patients had recovered. He also said that there were 57 cases reported in 2017 and 114 in 2016. No dengue deaths were reported so far this year in the district, he said.
For record, the district has 130 diagnostic laboratories and 109 registered hospitals.