HYDERABAD: The Medical and Health Department has served show-cause notices on several private hospitals and diagnostic centres in Hyderabad for reporting false dengue cases to the government and to patients. Dr Amar Singh, additional director of malaria and filariasis, Department of Medical and Health, said: “Several hospitals in Hyderabad have been issued show-cause notices, asking them to explain their dengue diagnoses.
To confirm a dengue case, multiple tests need to be carried out over a 10-day incubation period. These include the NS1 test and the IgM ELISA Test five days into the incubation period, and the IgG ELISA Test 10 days into the incubation period. However, most private hospitals are fleecing patients by just doing the Rapid Diagnosis Test (RDT) to declare that one has dengue. The RDT has a 36 per cent chance of declaring a false positive and a 26 per cent chance of declaring a false negative.”
He added, “Most private hospitals, except corporate ones like Yashoda, Care and Apollo, have no access to the ELISA test as it is very expensive.”With over 110 cases of dengue “confirmed” in the state on September 16 alone, the government is struggling with discrepancies in data due to incorrect reporting by private hospitals and diagnostic centres.
Hospitals reporting dengue online
Nalgonda district’s medical and health officer recently caught officials of two private diagnostic centres, where blood reports with incorrect platelet counts were being issued to patients. The labs have been seized. Confirming these reports, Dr Karuna, superintendent of ZOI Hospitals, said, “We are conducting the NS1 test, and if it confirms dengue, we report it online to the GHMC.
The system is very similar to that of uploading birth certificates for government records.” Most private hospitals, barring the big corporate ones, follow the same pattern. Dr Swarajya Lakshmi, DMHO of Rangareddy district said, “We had to organise a huge awareness campaign to educate private-hospital staff on differentiating between suspected and confirmed cases of dengue.
The awareness drive was conducted at AIG Hospital in Gachibowli, and officials from over 125 hospitals and nursing homes participated.” She added, “The reporting system is completely online, and all hospitals have been provided with usernames and passwords. We are also calling up hospitals to remind them to follow all the steps to confirm a dengue case or it’s subsequent death.”