PUDUCHERRY: Around 500 to 600 children with fever and associated symptoms of cough and cold have been visiting the Outpatient Department of the Rajiv Gandhi Government Hospital for Women and Children in Puducherry every day for the past few days and beds have been added to admit more patients, Director of Health and Family Welfare Dr G Sriramulu said on Saturday.
Though the number of beds in the hospital’s paediatric unit is 120, 192 children were admitted as inpatients on Friday after increasing the bed count. Similarly, 40 to 50 patients visit Indira Gandhi Government General Hospital and Post Graduate Institute every day with fever symptoms and 12 patients were admitted to the hospital on Friday, the director said.
Fever cases among kids and adults have been going up over the past 10 days across the Union Territory. Though the number of adults approaching hospitals has not gone up, number of children being brought to hospitals by parents has spiked and a separate fever centre and treatment unit has been started in each hospital, Dr G Sriramulu said.
JIPMER has been receiving around 30 to 40 children with fever every day on an average and 10 severe cases have been admitted so far, said Dr Narayanan Parameswaran, Head of Department of Pediatrics, JIPMER. Most of them are infants affected by respiratory syncytial virus, (RSV) and others have H1N1 and dengue infection, he said.
There is no unusual pattern in the numbers or severity of infection compared to previous years, Dr Narayanan said. Most of the children, unless there are some complications, recover, he said. “My daughter has been suffering from fever for the past three days. She also complains of throat pain and fatigue,” said the mother of a five-year-old girl admitted to Rajiv Gandhi Government Hospital.
Though it could be a common viral flu, the UT health department has procured enough kits to test all for viral infections such as H1N1, influenza, chikungunya and dengue, Dr G Sriramulu said. Tests are being conducted at the laboratories at JIPMER and Indira Gandhi Government Medical College. Though isolated cases of H1N1 and a few cases of dengue have been reported, results of latest samples taken from sick children will be available from Monday, the officer said. “With the government declaring holiday for schools for a week, the scope for transmission of infection among children will come down and fever count will also fall,” he said.