HYDERABAD : The city is reeling under the impact of seasonal infections of viral flu, dengue, chikungunya, and gastroenteritis.
The outpatient departments in private and government have been seeing a significant increase in the number of patients daily.
The instances of viral infections have gone up in the last two weeks with the advancement of monsoons. Doctors, however, said that there was no significant surge but there was a steady rise in dengue and chikungunya cases as of now.
Dr K Shankar, Fever Hospital superintendent, said the hospital was seeing around 600 patients in the OP daily of whom five were affected by dengue.
A patient with symptoms of high-grade fever, severe body and joint pains, and headache showed up in the OP of a private hospital, with doctors initially suspecting dengue. However, the patient tested negative for dengue, following which doctors advised a chikungunya test, which showed positive.
Doctors are facing a critical challenge of identifying viral, dengue, or chikungunya as the preliminary symptoms for these infections are same — high-grade fever, body and joint pains, and severe headache.
Dr. Rahul Agrawal, HOD, Internal Medicine and Infectious diseases, at a leading private hospital told TNIE, “ There is a little difficulty in detecting dengue from chikungunya in the initial days as the symptoms are nonspecific. We are now seeing patients who show dengue-like symptoms but turn negative in the tests but test positive for chikungunya. Even viral fever cases have similar symptoms and the initial three days, treatment is symptomatic in either case. Even as the instances increase, there are cases where patients are unaware that they have dengue, and only turn up for treatment when the symptoms worsen.”
Doctors raised concerns that the dengue and viral fever cases are very likely to increase in the next few weeks. Head of Medicine Department, KIMS Hospital, Dr Shiva Raju K told TNIE, “Priority must be given to dengue, viral fever, and respiratory tract infections.”
Awareness is the absolute need of the hour. We are seeing viral fever patients mostly in the age group of 20-40 on a daily basis, unlike the common belief that older people and children are more vulnerable to viral infections. Also, dengue mosquito usually bites during daytime and the bite is very mild, unlike other bites. Therefore covering hands with full-sleeved clothing, especially at workplaces and schools, is very important, he said.
Doctors also said that the recovery period after viral or vector-borne infections has also increased to between 10 and 15 days compared to the previous year.